presented  to  the 

LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  •  SAN  DIEGO 

by 
FRIENDS  OF  THE  LIBRARY 


_ 

donor 


INDIA 


AND  THE  FRONTIER  STATES  OF 


AFGHANISTAN,  NIPAL  AND  BURMA 


BY 


J.  TALBOYS  WHEELER 


LATE  ASSISTANT  SECRETARY    TO   THE    GOVERNMENT   OP  INDIA,  FOREIGN  DEPART- 
MENT, AND  LATE  SECRETARY  TO  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  BURMA 


WITH  A  SUPPLEMENTARY  CHAPTER  OF  RECENT  EVENTS 
By  EDGAR  SALTUS 


WITH  MAPS  AND  TABLES 


VOLUME  I 


MCM 


PREFACE 


IT  is  a  common  complaint  that  while  the  annals  of  In- 
dia are  of  paramount  importance  to  the  people  of  England, 
there  is  no  history  which  they  seem  less  inclined  to  study. 
Greece  and  Rome,  Egypt  and  Palestine,  Assyria  and  Baby- 
lon— countries  which  have  long  ceased  to  play  a  part  in  the 
drama  of  humanity — are  the  subjects  of  text-books  in  our 
schools  and  universities;  while  India,  which  is  literally  a 
modern  reflex  of  the  ancient  world,  and  has  moreover  be- 
come a  part  and  parcel  of  the  British  empire,  is  to  this  day 
a  sealed  book  to  the  masses.  The  essays  of  Lord  Macaulay 
on  Robert  Olive  and  Warren  Hastings  are  perhaps  known 
to  every  English  household;  but  they  refer  to  mere  episodes 
in  the  history,  and  are  wanting  in  that  familiarity  with  na- 
tive character  and  forms  of  thought  which  is  essential  to 
a  right  appreciation  of  the  great  collision  between  Europe 
and  Asia  that  has  been  going  on  in  India  for  the  last  two 
centuries. 

The  truth  is  that  the  preparation  of  a  history  of  India, 
political  and  religious,  is  a  far  more  difficult  and  laborious 
task  than  is  generally  imagined.  Twenty-two  years  ago 
the  author  began  such  a  work  at  Madras  under  every  pos- 
sible advantage.  There  were  libraries  at  Madras  contain- 
ing almost  unique  collections  of  books  appertaining  to  India. 

(3) 


4  PKEFACH 

To  these  were  added  the  government  records  at  Madras, 
which  were  freely  opened  to  the  author  by  Sir  Charles 
Trevelyan,  who  was  at  that  time  Governor.  The  author 
completed  a  History  of  Madras,  compiled  from  the  govern- 
ment records,  and  he  taught  Indian  history  in  the  Madras 
Presidency  College;  but  he  was  unable  to  complete  a  real 
history  of  India  from  a  consciousness  of  want  of  knowledge. 
After  four  years  he  proceeded  to  Calcutta  as  Assistant  Sec- 
retary to  the  Government  of  India  in  the  Foreign  or  Polit- 
ical Department,  and  was  soon  astounded  at  his  own  igno- 
rance. He  had  learned  something  of  Clive  and  Hastings, 
of  the  Moghuls,  Mahrattas,  and  the  Marquis  of  "Wellesley ; 
but  of  the  history  of  India  and  its  civilization,  and  espe- 
cially of  the  conflicts  between  opposite  lines  of  policy  laid 
down  by  different  Anglo-Indian  statesmen  during  the  eigh- 
teenth and  nineteenth  centuries,  he  found  that  he  knew  lit- 
erally nothing. 

The  writer  has  no  desire  to  carry  the  reader  into  his 
workshop,  or  to  dwell  on  the  extent  of  his  labors.  It  will 
suffice  to  say  that  having  sounded  the  depths  of  his  igno- 
rance, he  has  since  then  lost  no  opportunity,  official  or  lit- 
erary, to  perfect  his  knowledge  of  Indian  history.  Some 
samples  have  already  appeared  in  his  large  "History  of 
India  from  the  Earliest  Ages,"  which  deals  with  the  Hindu 
and  Muhammadan  periods,  and  of  which  four  volumes  have 
already  been  published.  His  history  of  British  India  is  now 
given  for  the  first  time  in  the  present  volumes.  It  has  been 
an  entirely  independent  work,  drawn  direct  from  the  foun- 
tain head,  after  a  study  of  the  records  of  the  Government 
of  India,  official  reports  and  parliamentary  blue  books,  and 
of  such  current  annals,  memoirs,  travels,  or  correspondence, 
as  have  been  found  to  yield  historical  materials.  Thus  it 


PREFACE  5 

is  only  after  the  unremitting  application  of  many  years, 
during  which  official  duties  have  often  helped  him  as  much 
as  literary  studies,  that  the  author  has  been  able  to  com- 
plete the  history  of  India,  from  the  earliest  dawning  of  le- 
gend to  the  breaking  out  of  the  present  Afghan  war:  and  to 
reduce  the  whole  to  a  compact  form  which,  it  is  hoped,  will 
render  it  both  interesting  and  useful  to  general  readers,  as 
well  as  to  students  in  the  religion  and  politics  of  our  Indian 
empire. 

WITHAM,  ESSEX, 

Jan.  22,  1880. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 
HINDU  INDIA 

CHAPTER  I 

MAHA  BHARATA— PUNJAB  AND  NORTHWEST.      (AB.  B.C.     1500-1400)     .        11 

CHAPTER  II 

RAMAYANA— OUDE.      (ABOUT  B.C.    1000) 48 

CHAPTER  in 

MEDLEVAL  RAJAS.      (B.C.   500  TO  A.D.    1000)          •          «...        61 

CHAPTER  IV 

RELIGION  AND  LITERATURE 77 


PART  II 
MUHAMMADAN  INDIA 

CHAPTER  I 

TURKS  AND  AFGHANS.      (A.D.    1000  TO  1525)  .          ....        94 

CHAPTER  II 

DEKHAN  AND  PENINSULA.      (A.D.    1350  TO  1565)    .....      112 

(7) 


8  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  m 

PORTUGUESE  EMPIRE— MALABAR.      (A.D.  1498  TO  1026)         •         •          .124 

CHAPTER  IV 

MOGHUL  EMPIRE — BABER,   HUMAYUN,   AKBAR.      (A.D.  1525  TO  1605)      .      149 

CHAPTER  V 

MOGHUL  EMPIRE— JEHANGm  AND  SHAH  JEHAN.     (A.D.  1605  TO  1658)    .      173 

CHAPTER  VI 

MOGHUL  EMPIRE— AURANGZEB.      (A.D.   1658  TO  1707)   .         .          •          .196 

CHAPTER  VH 
MOGHUL  EMPIRE— CIVILIZATION.     (A.D.   1600  TO  1790)          .         «          .     819 

CHAPTER  VHI 

MOGHUL  EMPIRE— DECLINE  AND  FALL.      (A.D.   1707  TO  1748)       •          .     840 


PART    III 
BRITISH  INDIA 

CHAPTER  I 

ENGLISH  AT  MADRAS.      (A.D.    1700  TO  1756)  .          ....          i     271 

CHAPTER  II 

ENGLISH  IN  BENGAL.      (A.D.    1700  TO  1761)    ..••«.     807 

CHAPTER  HI 

REVOLUTIONARY  THEOES.      (A.D.    1761  TO   1765)    .          .          .          .          .     340 


CONTENTS  9 

CHAPTER  IV 

DOUBI^E  GOVERNMENT— OLIVE,   ETC.      (A.D.   1765  TO  1771)   ...     869 

CHAPTER  V 

BOMBAY— MAHRATTA  EMPIRE.      (A.D.    1748  TO  1772)     .          ...      382 

CHAPTER  VI 

ENGLISH  RULE— WARREN  HASTINGS.      (A.D.   1772  TO  1785) .          .          .     404 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


INDIA 

Frontispiece— COURT  SCENE  AT  SHAH  JEHAN'S   .... 

TAJ  MAHAL     

WARREN  HASTINGS 

THE  NAWAB'S  ARTILLERY  ON  ITS  MOVABLE  PLATFORM  AT  PLASSY 


LIST  OF  MAPS 


nuu 

INDIA,  TO   ILLUSTRATE    THE  MAHA    BHARATA 13 

INDIA,  TO    ILLUSTRATE    THE  RAMAYANA 45 

INDIA,  TO    ILLUSTRATE    THE  MEDLEVAL    RAJAS             ....  63 

INDIA,  TO    ILLUSTRATE    THE  "  TURKS    AND    AFGHANS "      .          .          .99 

INDIA,  TO    ILLUSTRATE    THE  DEKHAN    AND    PENINSULA      .           .           .  .'15 

INDIA,  TO    ILLUSTRATE    THE  MOGHUL    EMPIRE 1^8 

INDIA,  TO    ILLUSTRATE     EARLY     ENGLISH     SETTLEMENTS     BEFORE 

1750 273 

INDIA    IN    THE    TIME    OF    CLIVE 291 

INDIA    IN    THI    TIME    OF    WARREN    HASTINGS        ...          e          c     407 


10 


A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF    INDIA 


PART  I  — HINDU    INDIA 


CHAPTER   I 
MAHA  BHARATA— PUNJAB  AND  NORTHWEST 

ABOUT  B.C.  1500-1400 

INDIA  in  ancient  times  was  parcelled  out,  like  Palestine 
and  Greece,  into  a  number  of  small  kingdoms,  each 
under  the  government  of  its  own  Raja.  Every  Raja 
had  a  council  of  elders,  including  chiefs  and  kinsmen,  who 
were  collectively  known  as  the  Durbar.  Sometimes  there 
was  a  minister  or  ministry.  Sometimes  a  Raja  might  be 
under  the  influence  of  a  queen  or  Rani,  or  of  a  queen  mother 
or  dowager  Rani.  Sometimes  a  Raja  conquered  other  Rajas, 
and  became  known  as  a  Maharaja,  or  "great  Raja."  At  a 
remote  period  the  life  at  Hindu  courts  was  modified  by  the 
rise  of  priests  or  Brahmans.  The  working  of  these  various 
elements  finds  full  expression  in  Hindu  legends,  and  consti- 
tutes what  may  be  called  Hindu  history. 

The  earliest  traditions  of  India  are  recorded  in  the  Maha 
Bharata,  an  ancient  Hindu  epic,  written  in  the  Sanskrit  lan- 
guage. It  tells  of  a  great  war  between  Kauravas  and  Pan- 
da vas,  just  as  Homer's  Iliad  tells  of  a  war  between  Greece 
and  Troy.  The  scene  is  laid  partly  in  the  Punjab,  and  partly 
in  the  northwest  of  Hindustan.  The  Kauravas  and  Pandavas 
were  rival  kinsmen  of  the  royal  house  of  Hastinapur.  The 
city  of  Hastinapur  was  situated  about  sixty-five  miles  to  the 
northeast  of  Delhi,  and  is  still  represented  by  a  group  of 

(ID 


12  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

shapeless  mounds  on  the  upper  course  of  the  Ganges.  The 
extent  of  the  Raj  is  unknown ;  but  it  included  a  certain  area 
round  Hastinapur  on  the  river  Ganges.  It  probably  con- 
sisted of  arable  and  pasture  lands,  occupied  by  Rajputs,  and 
bordering  on  uncleared  jungle  and  forest,  which  were  in- 
habited by  aboriginal  populations ;  but  in  the  Sanskrit  epic 
the  Raja  is  always  known  as  a  Maharaja,  or  "great 
Raja."1 

Hastinapur  was  to  all  appearance  an  Aryan  colony,  hav- 
ing other  Aryan  or  Rajput  colonies  in  its  neighborhood,  each 
forming  a  kingdom  under  its  own  Raja.  But  all  these  colo- 
nies were  struggling  more  or  less  against  aboriginal  or  non- 
Aryan  populations.  The  Aryans  were  immigrants  from  High 
Asia;  they  had  established  kingdoms  in  Central  Asia,  the 
Punjab,  and  the  northwest  quarter  of  Hindustan,  as  far  as 
Kanouj  on  the  Ganges,  and  probably  in  Ayodhya  or  Oude 
to  the  northward  of  the  Ganges.  They  regarded  the  abo- 
rigines as  demons  and  cannibals,  and  called  them  Rakshasas 
and  Asuras.  Some  aboriginal  tribes  were  treated  rather  as 
subject  races ;  such  as  the  Bhils  or  Bheels,  who  occupied  the 
hills  and  jungles  to  the  south,  and  the  Nagas,  or  snake  wor- 
shippers, who  appear  to  have  migrated  from  Kashmir  toward 
the  banks  of  the  Ganges. 

The  Maharaja  of  Hastinapur  was  named  Santanu.  He 
claimed  descent  from  the  hero  Bharata,  who  was  said  to  have 
conquered  all  India.  The  name  of  Bharata  was  famous  in 
the  days  of  yore.  All  India  was  called  the  land  of  Bharata. 
Even  the  war  of  the  descendants  of  Santanu,  which  forms 
the  main  tradition  of  the  epic,  has  always  been  known  as 
the  Maha  Bharata,  or  "great  war  of  Bharata." 

Maharaja  Santanu  was  an  old  man  with  a  grown-up 
son.  He  wanted  to  marry  a  young  damsel;  but  her  par- 
ents would  not  consent  to  the  marriage  unless  he  disinherited 
his  present  son,  and  reserved  the  Raj  for  any  other  son  he 


1  General  Cunningham,  on  the  strength  of  certain  astronomical  data,  flxea 
the  date  of  the  war  of  the  Maha  Bharata  in  1426  B.C. 


HINDU    INDIA 


13 


'— S/  ^ .        XHE  JLAHABHABAT/ 

V         /  *J      \  Statuie  Miles 

X-X  J  \   HfO  «0      P  MO          «0  «9« 

0 


14  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

might  have  by  their  daughter.  Moreover,  to  prevent  any 
future  disputes,  the  parents  insisted  that  the  son  already 
living  should  pledge  himself  never  to  marry.  The  Maharaja 
was  thus  at  the  mercy  of  his  son.  But  the  son  was  a  model 
of  filial  obedience ;  he  resigned  all  claim  to  the  Raj ;  and  he 
vowed  never  to  marry,  and  never  to  become  a  father.  The 
parents  then  gave  their  daughter  in  marriage  to  the  Ma- 
haraja; but  the  son  became  known  by  the  name  of  Bhishma, 
or  "dreadful,"  because  of  his  dreadful  vow. 

The  old  Maharaja  became  the  father  of  a  second  son,  and 
then  died.  Bhishma  kept  his  vow,  and  proved  a  faithful 
guardian  of  the  widow  and  her  infant  son.  He  placed  the 
son  upon  the  throne,  instructed  him  in  the  use  of  arms,  and 
conducted  the  affairs  of  the  Raj  for  him  as  minister  or  man- 
ager. "When  the  prince  was  grown,  Bhishma  provided  him 
with  two  wives;  he  fought  and  conquered  the  Raja  of  Be- 
nares, and  carried  off  his  two  daughters  to  become  the  brides 
of  his  young  half-brother.1  This  capture  of  daughters  was 
in  accordance  with  the  old  customs  of  the  Kshatriyas  or 
Rajas;  but  the  captor  was  always  obliged  to  fight  and  con- 
quer the  father  before  he  could  carry  off  a  daughter,  either 
to  marry  her  or  to  give  her  in  marriage.8  The  man  who 
stole  away  a  daughter  without  fighting  the  father  was  a 
coward  and  a  Rakshasa.3 

After  a  while  the  young  Maharaja  sickened  and  died, 
leaving  two  infants  to  inherit  the  Raj — Dhritarashtra  the 
"blind,"  and  Pandu  the  "pale-complexioned."4  Again 
Bhishma  proved  a  faithful  minister  and  instructor;  he 
managed  the  Raj,  educated  the  two  boys,  and  in  due  time 
procured  wives  for  both.  Dhritarashtra  the  blind  was  mar- 


1  Attock,  on  the  river  Indus,  was  anciently  known  as  Benares.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion whether  the  princesses  belonged  to  Benares  on  the  Indus,  or  to  Benares  on 
the  Ganges. 

9  Manu,  iii.  26,  32,  41.  For  further  explanation,  see  History  of  India,  voL  i. 
Maha  Bharata. 

3  Rakshasa  was  a  name  of  reproach  applied  to  the  aborigines  of  India. 

4  The  legend  has  been  slightly  modified  to  suit  modern  tastes.     The  details 
are  given  in  the  larger  History  of  India,  voL  i. 


HINDU    INDIA  15 

ried  to  a  daughter  of  the  Raja  of  the  Gandhara  country. J 
The  bride  was  named  Gandhari ;  and  when  she  knew  that 
her  husband  was  blind,  she  tied  a  handkerchief  over  her 
eyes,  so  that  she  might  have  no  advantage  over  him.  .Pan- 
du  the  pale-complexioned  was  married  to  two  wives,  Kunti 
and  Madri. a 

The  council  of  elders  at  Hastinapur  would  not  accept  a 
blind  prince  as  their  Maharaja.  Dhritarashtra  was  set  aside 
notwithstanding  he  was  the  elder  of  the  two;  and  Pandu  the 
pale-complexioned  was  installed  on  the  throne  of  Hastirfapur. 

The  reign  of  Pandu  is  obscure,  and  of  no  moment.  After 
a  while  he  abdicated  the  throne,  and  went  into  the  jungle, 
and  spent  his  time  in  hunting.  Subsequently  he  died  in  the 
jungle,  leaving  three  sons  by  Kunti  and  two  sons  by  Madri. 
There  was  a  contest  between  his  two  widows  as  to  who  should 
burn  herself  with  his  remains.  Madri  pleaded  that  she  was 
the  youngest  and  most  beloved,  and  therefore  the  most  likely 
to  comfort  the  dead  Maharaja  in  the  world  of  shades. s  Ac- 
cordingly Madri  perished  on  the  funeral  pile,  and  Kunti  re- 
turned with  the  five  sons  of  Pandu  to  the  palace  of  Hastina- 
pur. The  three  sons  of  Kunti  were  named  Yudhishthira, 
Bhima,  and  Arjuna.  The  two  sons  of  Madri  were  named 
Nakula  and  Sahadava. 

Meanwhile  Dhritarashtra  the  blind  became  Maharaja  of 
Hastinapur.  Indeed  after  the  abdication  of  Pandu  there  was 
no  alternative ;  for  there  was  no  one  left  but  the  blind  prince. 
Bhishma,  however,  was  still  minister  or  manager  of  the  Raj. 
Dhritarashtra  had  several  sons,  but  only  two  of  any  note, 
namely,  Duryodhana  the  eldest,  and  his  brother  Duhsasana. 
The  sons  of  Dhritarashtra  were  called  the  Kauravas,  after 

1  The  name  of  Gandhara  still  lingers  in  that  of  Kandahar  in  Central  Asia. 
The  country,  however,  is  said  to  be  identical  with  the  lower  Cabul  valley,  includ- 
ing Peshawur.     The  Gandarians  fought  in  the  army  of  Xerxes,  armed,  like  the 
Baktrians,  with  bows  of  cane  and  short  spears.     (Herodotus,  vii.  64,  66.)     Eaw- 
linaon  locates  them  on  the  lower  Indus,  and  makes  them  migrate  to  Kandahar. 

2  The  birth  of  Kunti  is  obscured  by  a  religious  myth.     Madri  is  said  to  have 
been  bought  with  money. 

3  This  story  was  current  among  the  Greeks.     It  is  retold  in  the  history  of 
Didorus  Siculus. 


16  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

a  remote  ancestor  called  Kuru.  They  were  thus  distin- 
guished from  their  cousins,  the  five  sons  of  Pandu,  who  were 
known  as  the  Pandavas. 

The  Kauravas  and  Pandavas  were  brought  up  in  the  old 
palace  at  Hastinapur.  Bhishma,  the  patriarch  of  the  fam- 
ily, was  by  this  time  too  old  to  teach  the  rising  generation.  A 
tutor  or  preceptor  was  engaged  named  Drona.  He  was  an 
exiled  prince  from  Panchala,  who  had  taken  refuge  at  the 
court  of  Hastinapur.  Panchala  lay  to  the  southeast ;  it  was 
a  Raj*  situated  on  the  lower  Doab  between  the  Ganges  and 
the  Jumna. l  The  Raja  of  the  Panchala  was  named  Drupada. 
Drona  had  a  feud  with  Drupada,  and  became  an  exile.  He 
married  a  daughter  of  the  house  of  Hastinapur,  and  had  a 
son  named  Aswatthama.  He  became  preceptor  of  the  young 
princes  of  Hastinapur,  on  the  condition  that  when  they  were 
fully  versed  in  the  use  of  arms  they  should  help  him  to  be 
revenged  on  Raja  Drupada. 

There  was  soon  a  jealousy  between  the  Kauravas  and  the 
Pandavas.  It  was  a  question  who  should  succeed  to  the 
Raj ;  Duryodhana,  the  eldest  of  the  Kauravas,  or  Yudhish- 
thira,  the  eldest  of  the  Pandavas.  Yudhishthira  was  not 
given  to  fighting,  and  never  proved  himself  a  warrior.  But 
Duryodhana  was  jealous  of  the  strength  of  Bhima,  the  sec- 
ond Pandava,  who  was  the  giant  of  the  family.  He  mixed 
drugs  in  Bhima's  food;  and  when  the  giant  was  in  a  deep 
sleep,  he  threw  him  into  the  Ganges.  Bhima  was  rescued 
by  some  of  the  Naga  people,  and  returned  to  Hastinapur; 
but  the  strife  between  Duryodhana  and  the  Pandavas  still 
remained. 

Drona  took  great  pains  in  teaching  all  the  young  men, 
but  he  had  a  special  leaning  toward  the  Pandavas.  He 
taught  Yudhishthira  the  use  of  the  spear,  but  nothing  would 


1  The  frontiers  of  a  Hindu  Raj,  in  ancient  times,  are  often  obscure.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Maha  Bharata  the  kingdom  of  Panchala  extended  from  the  Hima- 
layas to  the  Chambal  river.  Manu  again  identifies  Panchala  with  Kanouj.  The 
city  of  Kanouj,  on  the  Ganges,  was  about  two  hundred  miles  to  the  south  of 
Hastinapur. 


HINDU    INDIA  17 

make  that  young  man  a  warrior.  Bhima,  Aowever,  learned 
to  use  his  club ;  while  Arjuna  became  the  most  famous  archer 
of  his  time.  Nakula  learned  to  tame  horses,  and  Sahadava 
to  calculate  the  stars.  The  Kauravas  were  taught  the  use  of 
arms,  like  their  cousins  the  Pandavas,  and  so  was  Aswatt- 
hama,  the  son  of  Drona;  but  there  was  no  one  to  equal 
Arjuna;  and  Duryodhana  began  to  hate  Arjuna  as  much 
as  he  hated  Bhima. 

The  fame  of  Drona  as  a  teacher  of  archery  was  soon 
noised  abroad.  Sons  of  Rajas  flocked  to  Hastinapur  to  learn 
the  use  of  the  bow.  Among  others  came  a  son  of  a  Bhil 
Raja  from  the  southern  hills ;  but  Drona  refused  to  instruct 
him.  Drona  declared  that  the  Bhils  were  a  race  of  high- 
waymen and  cattle  lif ters,  and  that  it  would  be  a  sin  to  teach 
them  the  use  of  the  bow.  The  Bhil  prince  was  much  abashed 
by  this  refusal,  and  went  away  very  sorrowful  to  his  own 
country. 

The  Bhils  in  those  days  were  as  superstitious  as  they  are 
now.  The  Bhil  prince  adored  Drona  as  a  god.  He  made  a 
clay  image  of  Drona,  worshipped  it,  and  practiced  with  his 
bow  and  arrows  before  it;  and  he  became  so  skilful  an 
archer  that  his  fame  reached  to  Hastinapur.  Drona  was 
angry  with  the  Bhil  prince;  he  was  alarmed  lest  the  Bhils 
should  become  dangerous  archers.  He  went  to  the  Bhil 
country,  accompanied  by  all  the  young  men  at  Hastinapur, 
and  resolved  to  spoil  the  archery  of  his  worshipper.  He  called 
the  Bhil  prince  before  him,  and  commanded  him  to  cut  off 
the  forefinger  of  his  right  hand.  The  prince  fell  down  and 
worshipped  him  and  prepared  to  do  his  bidding.  But  Drona's 
heart  was  touched.  He  ordered  the  Bhil  to  stay  his  hand, 
but  made  him  swear  that  he  would  never  shoot  the  bow  with 
his  forefinger,  but  with  his  middle  fingers  only.1 

After  the  return  from  the  Bhil  country  a  day  was  ap- 
pointed for  an  exhibition  of  arms  at  Hastinapur.  An  area 

1  The  legend  is  remembered  in  Malwa  to  this  day,  but  the  modern  Bhils  have 
forgotten  the  oath,  and  use  their  forefingers  in  shooting,  as  they  say  their  fathers 
had  done  before  them. 


18  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

was  set  apart  without  the  city,  and  marked  round  with  bar- 
riers. Galleries  were  built  round  about  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  chieftains  and  ladies,  and  were  adorned  with  flags 
and  garlands.  When  the  day  began  to  dawn,  the  people 
gathered  round  the  barriers,  and  between  the  galleries,  to 
witness  the  exercises  of  the  Kauravas  and  Pandavas.  The 
blind  Maharaja  was  led  to  the  galleries,  and  took  his  seat 
among  his  chieftains,  with  Bhishma  sitting  on  his  right 
hand.  All  the  ladies  of  the  court  also  took  their  seats  in 
the  galleries;  and  the  chief  among  them  were  Gandhari, 
the  mother  of  the  Kauravas,  and  Kunti,  the  mother  of  the 
Pandavas. 

Drona  and  his  son  Aswatthama  then  entered  the  arena 
in  white  garments,  and  chanted  the  praises  of  Indra  and 
the  gods.  The  princes  followed  with  their  weapons  in  their 
hands,  and  kissed  the  feet  of  their  preceptor.  They  began 
by  shooting  arrows  at  a  butt,  first  on  foot,  and  afterward 
from  horses,  elephants,  and  chariots.  Next  followed  mock 
fights  with  swords  and  bucklers,  and  afterward  they  fought 
with  clubs,  to  prove  their  strength  as  well  as  their  skill. 

During  the  club  fighting,  the  old  jealousy  broke  out. 
Duryodhana  and  Bhima  engaged  in  combat  at  the  other 
end  of  the  arena,  and  soon  fought  in  downright  earnest. 
They  rushed  upon  one  another  like  wild  elephants,  while 
the  multitude  ran  to  and  fro,  and  shouted  some  for  Bhima 
and  others  for  Duryodhana.  The  air  was  filled  with  noise 
and  dust,  and  the  whole  plain  was  in  an  uproar.  Drona 
sent  his  son  Aswatthama  to  stop  the  combat,  but  no  one 
heeded  him.  At  last  Drona  went  himself  in  all  haste, 
parted  the  young  men  by  sheer  force,  and  thus  put  an  end 
to  the  turmoil. 

When  quiet  was  restored,  Drona  ordered  Arjuna  to  show 
his  skill  at  archery.  The  young  prince  entered  the  arena 
clothed  in  golden  mail,  with  his  bow  inlaid  with  many  col- 
ors. The  multitude  hailed  him  as  another  Indra;  and  the 
heart  of  Kunti  thrilled  with  pride  and  exultation  as  she 
beheld  her  youngest  son.  Arjuna  set  up  an  iron  boar  and 


HINDU    INDIA  19 

shot  five  arrows  into  its  mouth.  He  tied  a  cow's  horn  to 
the  top  of  a  pole,  and  shot  twenty-one  arrows  into  the  hol- 
low of  the  horn.  He  mounted  his  chariot,  and  was  driven 
swiftly  along,  while  shooting  arrows  right  and  left  with  the 
utmost  skill  and  dexterity.  Next  he  played  with  the  sword, 
and  the  blade  flashed  like  lightning.  He  whirled  his  sharp- 
edged  quoit  or  chakra  wherever  he  would,  and  never  missed 
his  mark.  Lastly,  he  armed  himself  with  a  noose,  and 
threw  it  at  horses  and  deer,  and  drew  every  one  to  the 
ground.  "When  he  had  finished,  he  kissed  the  feet  of  his 
preceptor,  and  was  embraced  by  Drona  before  all  the  as- 
sembly. 

At  this  moment  a  young  warrior  entered  the  arena  and 
challenged  Arjuna.  His  name  was  Kama.  He  was  a  close 
friend  of  Duryodhana,  for  he  was  as  skilled  an  archer  as 
Arjuna ;  but  his  birth  was  low,  for  his  father  was  a  chari- 
oteer. Arjuna  would  have  fought  Kama,  but  a  kinsman 
prevented  the  combat.  Duryodhana  made  him  a  Raja  on 
the  spot,  but  the  Pandavas  treated  him  as  an  upstart. 
Bhima  asked  him  what  he  had  to  do  with  bows  and  arrows, 
and  told  him  to  take  a  whip  and  drive  a  bullock-cart  after 
his  father.  Kama  was  very  angry,  but  said  nothing;  and 
night  coming  on  soon  dispersed  the  assembly. 

After  this  Drona  claimed  the  reward  of  his  instructions. 
His  pupils  were  skilled  in  arms,  and  he  was  longing  to  be 
revenged  on  the  Raja  of  Panchala.  Neither  the  Maharaja 
nor  his  council  objected  to  the  war  against  Drupada.  Drona 
marched  against  Drupada,  accompanied  by  the  Kauravas 
and  Pandavas,  and  defeated  the  Panchala  Raja,  and  car- 
ried him  off  prisoner  to  Hastinapur.  Drona  now  obliged 
Drupada  to  give  him  half  the  Raj  of  Panchala;  and  Dru- 
pada returned  to  his  reduced  dominion,  and  swore  to  be 
revenged  on  Drona. 

Meanwhile  the  time  arrived  for  appointing  a  Yuva-raja, 
or  "little  Raja."  The  Yuva-raja  was  to  help  the  Maha- 
raja, or  "great  Raja,"  in  his  old  age,  and  to  inherit  the  Raj 
after  his  death.  A  Yuva-raja  was  appointed  while  the 


20  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

Maharaja  was  alive,  in  order  to  secure  the  succession,  and 
to  accustom  the  young  prince  to  the  duties  of  government. ' 

In  the  first  instance,  Maharaja  Dhritarashtra  appointed 
Yudhishthira  to  be  Yuva-raja.  Duryodhana  and  the  Kau- 
ravas  raised  a  great  outcry.  They  asked  the  Maharaja  why 
he  promoted  his  nephews  at  the  expense  of  his  sons.  The 
blind  old  sovereign  became  sorely  troubled.  The  sons  of 
Pandu  had  a  rightful  claim,  but  his  own  sons  had  a  natural 
claim.  The  Maharaja  was  afraid  that  war  and  bloodshed 
would  break  out  in  Hastinapur.  After  much  hesitation  he 
ordered  Yudhishthira  and  his  brethren  to  go  to  the  city  of 
Varanavata,  the  modern  Allahabad,  there  to  abide  until  he 
should  recall  them  to  Hastinapur.  The  Pandavas  obeyed 
the  words  of  the  Maharaja  and  went  with  their  mother 
Kunti  to  the  city  of  Varanavata.  "When  they  had  departed 
out  of  Hastinapur,  the  Maharaja  appointed  Duryodhana  to 
be  Yuva-raja. 

The  exile  of  the  Pandavas  carried  them  to  the  frontier 
of  the  Aryan  pale.  The  city  of  Varanavata,  the  ancient 
Prayag  and  modern  Allahabad,  was  situated  at  the  junction 
of  the  Ganges  and  Jumna.  On  the  north  was  the  famous 
Raj  of  Ayodhya,  or  Oude.  To  the  south  and  east  was  the 
country  of  Rakshasas  and  Asuras,  demons  and  cannibals.8 

The  Kauravas  had  already  sent  a  trusty  retainer  to 
Varanavata  to  compass  the  destruction  of  the  Pandavas. 
On  reaching  the  city,  the  Pandavas  were  met  by  this  re- 
tainer, who  led  them  to  a  college  of  holy  men,  and  then 
conducted  them  to  a  house  which  he  had  prepared  for  their 
reception.  At  night  time  the  Pandavas  discovered  that  this 
house  was  built  of  combustibles,  and  that  it  was  locked  and 
barred  on  the  outside.  They  escaped  through  a  subter- 
ranean passage,  which  is  shown  to  this  day  in  the  fortress 

1  The  custom  of  appointing  a  Yuva-raja,  or  Joobraj,  still  prevails  in  Hindu 
courts.  A  similar  custom  prevailed  among  the  later  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel. 

8  Further  particulars  respecting  the  region  outside  the  Aryan  pale  will  be 
furnished  in  dealing  with  the  Ramayana.  The  region  to  the  eastward  of  Allaha- 
bad, which  is  said  to  have  been  occupied  by  Rakshasas  and  Asuras,  corresponds 
with  Magadha,  the  modern  Behar,  the  cradle  ol  Buddhism. 


HINDU    INDIA  21 

of  Allahabad.  The  house  was  burned  down  with  all  that 
it  contained,  including  a  Bhil  woman  and  five  of  her  sons, 
who  had  got  drunk  after  the  manner  of  their  race,  and 
fallen  asleep  inside  the  building.  The  discovery  of  their 
blackened  remains  led  all  men  to  believe  that  Kunti  and  her 
five  sons  had  perished  in  the  conflagration. 

The  Pandavas  next  disguised  themselves  as  Brahman 
mendicants,  and  journeyed  eastward  through  the  land  of 
Rakshasas  and  Asuras.  The  sacred  garb  insured  them 
respect,  while  they  collected  enough  alms  for  their  daily 
needs.  In  this  manner  they  journeyed  to  the  city  of  Eka- 
chakra,  the  modern  Arrah.  On  the  way  Bhima  is  said 
to  have  conquered  and  slain  a  cannibal  Asura,  named 
Hidimba,  and  then  to  have  married  his  sister  Hidimbi. 

At  Ekachakra,  the  Pandavas  and  their  mother  lodged 
in  the  house  of  a  Brahman.  There  Bhima  had  an  adven- 
ture with  another  cannibal  Asura,  named  Vaka.  Accord- 
ing to  the  story,  Vaka  lived  in  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  and 
required  the  inhabitants  to  supply  him  with  a  stock  of  pro- 
visions and  a  human  victim  every  day.  The  household  of 
the  Brahman  where  the  Pandavas  lodged  were  in  great 
grief,  for  it  was  the  Brahman's  turn  to  supply  a  human 
victim.  The  infant  son  of  the  Brahman  broke  off  a  pointed 
blade  of  grass,  and  wanted  to  go  and  kill  the  Asura.  Kunti 
and  her  sons  were  moved  to  tears.  Bhima  went  out  to  meet 
the  Asura.  He  tore  up  a  tree  by  the  roots  to  serve  as  a 
club;  and  then  fought  the  cannibal  and  slew  him,  and 
dragged  his  body  to  the  gate  of  the  city.1 

1  The  stories  of  Hidimbi  and  Vaka  are  apparently  allegorical  fictions,  coined 
by  the  Brahmanical  compilers  of  the  Maha  Bharata,  as  an  expression  of  their 
hatred  against  the  Buddhists.  The  country,  as  already  seen,  was  the  hot-bed 
of  Buddhism ;  consequently  it  is  peopled  by  Rakshasas  and  Asuras.  In  Burma 
and  other  Buddhist  countries,  the  ladies,  though  perfectly  modest,  are  more  free 
and  unreserved  than  in  a  Brahmanical  country  like  India.  This  fact  is  exagger- 
ated in  the  story  of  Hidimbi,  who  is  represented  as  asking  Bhima  to  take  her  as 
his  wife.  Vaka  is  nothing  more  than  an  allegorical  personification  of  a  Buddhist 
monastery,  situated  in  the  outskirts  of  a  city,  and  receiving  a  daily  supply  of 
provisions  from  the  inhabitants.  The  Buddhist  monks  had  no  objection  to  flesh 
meat,  which  was  opposed  to  Brahmanical  laws ;  accordingly  they  figure  as  can- 
nibals. Bhima,  the  hero  of  the  Pandavas,  is  described  as  destroying  the  monster 
or  monastery. 


22  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 


At  t.hia  crisis  heralds  were  proclaiming  in  all  lands  that 
Raja  Drupada  of  Panchala  was  about  to  celebrate  the 
Swayamvara  of  his  daughter  Draupadi  at  his  city  of  Kam- 
pilya.1  The  Swayamvara  was  a  marriage  festival.  Young 
men  of  the  noble  race  of  Kshatriyas  contended  in  feats  of 
strength  and  skill  for  the  hand  of  a  daughter  of  a  Raja. 
It  was  called  a  Swayamvara,  or  "self  -choice,"  because  the 
damsel  was  supposed  to  have  some  choice  in  the  matter.* 
Accordingly  the  Pandavas  laid  aside  their  old  hostility 
against  Drupada,  and  went  to  the  Swayamvara  of  his 
daughter,  who  was  said  to  be  the  fairest  maiden  in  all  the 
world. 

The  Swayamvara  of  Draupadi  is  a  Rajput  romance. 
All  the  Rajas  of  India  are  said  to  have  been  present,  in- 
cluding Duryodhana  and  the  other  Kauravas,  as  well  as 
Kama,  their  low-born  ally.  A  large  plain  was  set  apart 
with  barriers  and  galleries,  like  the  area  of  the  exhibition 
of  arms  at  Hastinapur.  At  one  end  of  the  plain  a  golden 
fish  was  set  up  on  the  top  of  a  pole.  Beneath,  or  before, 
the  fish,  a  chakra  or  quoit  was  hung,  and  kept  constantly 
whirling  round.  Near  the  same  spot  was  a  heavy  bow  of 
enormous  size.  The  man  who  strung  the  bow,  and  shot 
an  arrow  through  the  chakra,  which  should  strike  the  eye 
of  the  fish,  was  to  be  the  winner  of  the  daughter  of  the 
Raja. 

When  the  Pandavas  reached  the  city  of  Kampilya  they 
found  a  number  of  Rajas  encamped  round  about.  There 
were  soldiers  and  elephants,  merchants  and  showmen,  and 
multitudes  of  spectators.  After  many  days  of  sports  and 
feasting,  the  morning  of  the  Swayamvara  began  to  dawn. 
The  city  was  awakened  with  drums  and  trumpets,  and  the 
plain  was  hung  with  flags  and  garlands.  The  multitude 
crowded  round  the  barriers;  the  Rajas  filled  the  galleries; 


1  General  Cunningham  identifies  Kampilya  with  the  modern  Kampil,  between 
Budaon  and  Farukhabad. 

*  At  later  Swayamvaras  there  were  no  preliminary  games,  but  a  princess 
simply  chose  her  own  bridegroom. 


HINDU   INDIA  23 

the  Brahmans  chanted  the  Vedic  hymns  in  praise  of  Indra 
and  the  gods.  The  princess  Draupadi  appeared  with  a  gar- 
land in  her  hand,  and  her  brother  Dhrishta-dyumna  stood 
at  her  side.  The  prince  stepped  forward  and  proclaimed 
that  his  sister  would  be  the  bride  of  the  man  who  shot  an 
arrow  through  the  chakra  and  struck  the  eye  of  the  golden 
fish.  He  then  turned  to  his  sister  and  said,  "If  a  Kshatriya1 
performs  this  feat,  you  must  throw  your  garland  round  his 
neck,  and  accept  him  for  your  lord  and  bridegroom." 

Then  the  Rajas  arose  from  their  seats  and  entered  the 
area.  They  gathered  round  the  golden  fish  and  looked  wist- 
fully at  the  bow ;  but  every  man  was  afraid  to  lift  it  lest  he 
should  fail  to  bend  it,  and  excite  laughter  and  scorn.  Pres- 
ently one  tried  to  bend  the  bow  and  failed.  Then  many 
tried  and  shared  his  fate.  At  last  Kama  entered  the  lists; 
he  bent  the  bow  and  fitted  an  arrow  to  the  string.  At  this 
moment  Draupadi  stepped  forth.  She  cried  aloud,  "I  wed 
not  with  the  base-born!"  So  Kama  was  abashed  and 
walked  away;  but  his  heart  was  burning  with  rage  and 
mortification. 

Other  Rajas  came  up,  but  not  one  could  bend  the  bow. 
The  Pandavas  looked  on,  still  disguised  as  Brahmans.  Sud- 
denly Arjuna  stepped  forth  and  strung  the  bow,  and  fitted 
an  arrow  to  the  string.  The  Brahmans  looked  on  with  wild 
surprise  to  see  a  Brahman  contend  at  a  Swayamvara.  The 
Brahmans  in  the  crowd  were  sore  afraid  lest  the  Rajas 
should  be  offended  and  withhold  their  alms;  they  implored 
Arjuna  to  withdraw.  But  Arjuna,  nothing  daunted,  drew 
his  bow  with  all  his  might;  he  shot  the  arrow  through  the 
centre  of  the  whirling  chakra  into  the  eye  of  the  golden  fish. 
A  roar  of  acclamations  rose  like  the  crash  and  roll  of  thun- 
der. The  Brahmans  forgot  their  fears  and  waved  their 
scarfs  with  delight.  The  beautiful  Draupadi  came  forth, 
as  her  brother  had  commanded  her,  and  threw  the  garland 


1  The  Aryans  included  at  least  two  caates,  the  Kshatriyas,  or  military  caste, 
and  the  Brahmans,  or  priests  and  sagea     The  Rajputs  claim  to  be  Kshatriyas. 


24  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

round  the  neck  of  Arjuna,  and  allowed  him  to  lead  her 
away  as  her  lord  and  bridegroom. 

The  sight  drove  the  Rajas  into  a  fury.  They  cried  out, 
"Could  not  a  Kshatriya  win  the  damsel?"  "Are  we  to  be 
humbled  by  a  Brahman?'*  "The  life  of  a  Brahman  is  sa- 
cred, but  down  with  the  guilty  race  of  Drupada!"  They 
gathered  round  Raja  Drupada  with  angry  faces  and  naked 
swords;  they  threatened  to  burn  his  daughter  on  a  pile 
unless  she  chose  a  Kshatriya  for  her  husband.  At  this 
moment  the  Pandavas  threw  off  their  disguise.  Arjuna 
stood  forth  and  proclaimed  his  birth  and  lineage.  The  chil- 
dren of  Bharata  were  the  noblest  Kshatriyas  in  the  land, 
and  none  could  doubt  the  right  of  Arjuna  to  contend  at  a 
Swayamvara.  So  the  Rajas  sheathed  their  swords  in  sullen 
anger,  and  went  away  to  their  own  homes;  while  Arjuna 
led  away  his  bride,  and  placed  her  in  the  charge  of  his 
mother  Kunti,  until  the  marriage  rites  could  be  performed, 
according  to  the  law.1 

The  marriage  of  Draupadi  broke  up  the  league  between 
the  Pandavas  and  Drona  against  Drupada.  The  Kauravas 
remained  on  the  side  of  Drona.  The  Pandavas  went  over 
to  Drupada  and  formed  a  close  alliance  with  him.  Both 
Drupada  and  the  Pandavas  prepared  to  make  war  upon 
Drona  and  the  Kauravas.  Drupada  was  anxious  to  recover 
the  lost  half  of  his  Raj  of  Panchala;  while  the  Pandavas 
were  anxious  to  secure  the  Raj  they  had  inherited  from  their 
father  Pandu. 

This  alliance  caused  much  alarm  at  Hastinapur.  The 
younger  men  were  clamorous  for  war,  but  the  blind  Maha- 
raja was  averse  to  bloodshed.  At  last  Bhishma  proposed 
that  the  Raj  of  Hastinapur  should  be  divided  between  the 
Kauravas  and  Pandavas.  After  many  debates  the  Maha- 

1  The  marriage  of  Draupadi  has  a  dark  side,  which  is  best  left  in  obscurity. 
According  to  a  barbarous  law,  which  prevailed  in  times  when  female  infanticide 
was  a  general  rule,  a  woman  was  married  to  the  eldest  brother,  but  became  the 
wife  of  all  the  brothers  of  a  family.  Thus  Draupadi  was  married  to  Yudhish- 
thira,  but  became  the  wife  of  all  five  Pandavas.  The  subject  is  sufficiently  dis- 
cussed in  the  larger  history.  See  vol.  i.  Maha  Bharata. 


HINDU   INDIA  25 

raja  followed  the  counsel  of  Bhishma.  The  Raj  was  di- 
vided, but  it  was  not  a  fair  division.  The  uncleared  jungle 
of  Khandava-prastha  was  made-over  to  the  Pandavas;  while 
the  Maharaja  and  the  Kauravas  remained  in  possession  of 
Hastinapur.1 

The  jungle  of  Khandava-prastha  was  occupied  by  a 
Scythic  tribe,  known  as  Nagas,  or  serpent-worshippers. 
They  were  driven  out  by  the  simple  process  of  burning 
the  forest.  The  Pandavas  built  a  fortress,  and  called  it 
Indra-prastha." 

The  tradition  of  the  new  Raj  tells  something  of  the  social 
status  of  the  ancient  Kshatriyas.  They  were  at  once  a  sol- 
dier and  a  ruling  caste.  They  were  all  Rajputs,  or  the  sons 
of  Rajas;  and  so  long  as  they  protected  their  people,  so  long 
they  exercised  the  rights  of  sovereignty.  They  did  not  trade 
like  the  Vaisyas,  nor  cultivate  the  lands  like  the  Sudras/ 
Their  duty  was  to  fight  with  the  bow  and  arrows,  the  sword 
and  spear.' 

The  Pandavas  ruled  their  Raj  like  true  Kshatriyas.  For 
a  while  they  supported  themselves  by  hunting  in  the  jun- 
gles. But  cultivators  soon  flocked  to  the  cleared  lands,  and 
sowed  the  seed,  and  gave  the  Raja's  share  of  the  harvests 
to  Yudhishthira.  In  return  the  Pandavas  protected  them 
from  every  enemy,  and  drove  out  all  robbers  and  cattle- 
lifters. 

After  a  while  there  was  a  misunderstanding  among  the 
Pandavas.  Arjuna  left  the  Raj,  and  went  into  exile  for 
twelve  years.  His  adventures  during  this  period  are  so 

1  The  old  jungle  or  forest  of  Khandava-prastha  covered  the  site  of  modern 
Delhi  and  the  surrounding  country. 

2  There  are  said  to  have  been  five  districts  corresponding  to  the  five  Pan- 
davas.    The  point  is  of  small  moment,  except  to  archaeologists.     Every  traveller 
to  Delhi  who  has  visited  the  Kutab  tower  will  remember  the  desolate  heaps,  the 
debris  of  thousands  of  years,  that  are  scattered  along  the  road.     To  this  day 
there  is  a  broken  mound,  called  the  "Old  Fort,"  which  tradition  would  identify 
with  the  fortress  built  by  the  Pandavas. 

3  The  Hindus  are  divided  into  four  great  castes,  namely  Brahmans  or  priests, 
Kshatriyas  or  soldiers,  Vaisyas  or  merchants,  and  Sudras  or  cultivators.     These 
again  are  distributed  into  a  number  of  subdivisions,  which  are  also  called  families, 
tribes,  or  castes. 

H  OF  1—2 


2$  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

marvellous  that  they  may  be  treated  as  romance  rather  than 
as  history.  He  married  Ulupi,  a  daughter  of  the  Raja  of 
the  Nagas ;  but  she  is  described  as  a  serpent  rather  than  as 
a  mortal  woman.  He  is  said  to  have  received  weapons  from 
the  gods.  He  went  to  Manipura  in  eastern  Bengal,  and 
married  the  daughter  of  a  Raja,  and  had  a  son.  He  went 
to  Dwaraka  in  Guzerat,  and  married  Subhadra,  the  sister  of 
Krishna.  At  the  end  of  twelve  years  he  returned  to  Hasti* 
napur,  accompanied  by  Subhadra. 

By  this  time  the  Pandavas  were  established  in  their  Raj. 
Accordingly  they  celebrated  a  great  feast  or  sacrifice,  known 
as  the  Rajasuya,  or  royal  sacrifice.  It  was  a  royal  banquet 
given  to  all  the  neighboring  Rajas  as  an  assertion  of  their 
independent  sovereignty  over  their  new  Raj.  All  the  Rajas 
were  there,  and  among  them  was  Duryodhana  and  his 
brethren.  The  Rajasuya  was  extolled  by  all  the  guests, 
but  it  made  the  Kauravas  more  jealous  than  ever,  and  they 
began  to  plot  among  themselves  for  the  destruction  of-  the 
Pandavas. 

The  ancient  Kshatriyas  were  all  given  to  gambling. 
Sakuni,  a  brother  of  Gandhari,  the  mother  of  the  Kaura- 
vas, was  a  noted  gambler,  and  had  an  evil  reputation  for 
using  loaded  dice.  He  was  dwelling  at  Hastinapur,  and 
the  Kauravas  asked  him  how  they  could  ruin  the  Pandavas. 
Sakuni  counselled  his  nephews  to  invite  the  Pandavas  to  a 
gambling  match  at  Hastinapur.  Duryodhana  was  to  chal- 
lenge Yudhishthira  to  play,  but  Sakuni  was  to  throw  the 
dice ;  and  Yudhishthira  was  to  be  egged  on  until  he  had  lost 
the  Raj,  and  the  whole  of  his  possessions. 

The  invitation  was  sent  and  accepted.  The  Pandavas 
Went  to  Hastinapur,  accompanied  by  Draupadi.  The  gam- 
bling match  was  held  in  a  pavilion  set  up  near  the  palace. 
Duryodhana  challenged  Yudhishthira  to  a  game.  The  play 
began,  and  Sakuni  threw  the  dice  for  his  nephew.  Yud- 
hishthira protested  against  the  game.  He  complained  that 
Sakuni  ought  not  to  throw  the  dice ;  but  still  he  continued 
to  play.  He  laid  stake  after  stake,  wildly,  madly,  and  with- 


HINDU    INDIA  27 

out  regard  to  consequences.  He  was  the  elder  brother;  the 
other  Pandavas  reverenced  him  as  their  father,  and  would 
not  venture  to  interfere. 

It  is  needless  to  lengthen  out  the  story.  Yudhishthira 
lost  all  the  wealth  and  cattle  of  himself  and  his  brethren. 
Then  he  gambled  away  the  Raj  of  Khandava-prastha.  iText 
he  staked  his  brethren,  one  after  the  other,  beginning  with 
the  youngest,  and  lost  every  one.  Then  he  staked  himself 
and  lost.  Finally  he  staked  Draupadi,  and  lost  her  with 
all  the  rest  to  the  wicked  Duryodhana.1 

The  scene  which  followed  is  perhaps  the  most  sensational 
in  Hindu  history.  The  Pandavas  and  Draupadi  had  become 
the  slaves  of  Duryodhana.  The  assembly  was  in  a  state  of 
consternation;  the  chieftains  looked  from  one  to  the  other, 
but  no  man  spoke  a  word.  Duryodhana  sent  a  messenger 
to  bring  Draupadi  from  the  palace.  The  princess  was  filled 
with  wrath  when  she  was  told  that  she  had  been  gambled 
away  as  a  slave-girl  to  Duryodhana.  She  asked  whether 
Yudhishthira  had  not  gambled  away  himself  before  he  had 
staked  his  wife;  for  if  he  had  become  a  slave  he  could  not 
stake  a  free  woman.  She  refused  to  go  to  the  gambling 
pavilion  until  she  received  an  answer.  But  reason  and  argu- 
ments were  thrown  away.  Duhsasana  went  to  the  palace, 
seized  Draupadi  by  her  long  black  hair,  and  dragged  her 
into  the  pavilion.  He  told  her  to  take  a  broom  and  sweep 
the  rooms.  She  appealed  to  all  the  chieftains  in  the  pavil- 
ion; she  called  upon  them,  as  husbands  and  fathers,  to  pro- 
tect her  from  Duryodhana ;  but  not  a  man  would  stir  hand 
or  foot  in  her  defence.  Yudhishthira  was  paralyzed  with 
fear ;  he  refused  to  interfere,  and  he  ordered  his  brethren  to 
be  silent.  Duryodhana  then  dragged  Draupadi  to  his  knee. 
Bhima  could  hold  out  no  longer :  he  gnashed  his  teeth,  and 
swore  that  the  day  should  come  when  he  would  smash  the 
knee  of  Duryodhana,  and  drink  the  blood  of  Duhsasana. 


1  Similar  cases  of  such  reckless  gambling  are  to  be  found  to  this  day  in 
Burma  and  NipaL 


28  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

At  this  moment  the  blind  Maharaja  was  led  into  the 
pavilion.  He  had  been  told  all  that  had  occurred,  and  was 
anxious  to  stop  bloodshed.  He  decided  that  the  Pandavas 
had  lost  their  Raj ;  but  he  would  not  permit  the  Pandavas 
and  Draupadi  to  become  the  slaves  of  Duryodhana.  He 
ordered  them  to  go  into  the  jungles  as  exiles  for  a  period  of 
twelve  years.  At  the  end  of  that  time  they  were  to  secrete 
themselves  in  any  city  they  pleased  for  one  more  year.  If 
the  Kauravas  failed  to  find  them,  they  were  to  recover  their 
Raj.  If  the  Kauravas  discovered  them  before  the  year  was 
up,  they  were  to  lose  their  Raj  forever.1 

The  Pandavas  went  forth,  followed  by  Draupadi.  Bhima 
repeated  his  oath  that  a  day  would  come,  when  he  would 
smash  the  knee  of  Duryodhana,  and  drink  the  blood  of 
Duhsasana.  Draupadi  untied  her  long  black  hair,  and 
swore  that  it  should  never  be  tied  again  until  Bhima  had 
fulfilled  his  vow. 

The  adventures  of  the  Pandavas,  during  the  twelve 
years'  exile  in  the  jungle,  are  either  trivial  or  supernatu- 
ral. There  is  nothing  that  illustrates  real  life.  The  main 
interest  centres  in  the  thirteenth  year,  during  which  the 
Pandavas  were  to  conceal  themselves  in  some  city  without 
being  discovered  by  the  Kauravas.  Even  this  story  is  so 
artificially  constructed  that  it  might  be  rejected  as  a  pal- 
pable fiction;  an  episode  of  a  game  of  "hide  and  seek," 
between  Kauravas  and  Pandavas,  to  fill  up  the  interval 
between  the  expulsion  of  the  Pandavas  and  the  beginning 
of  the  great  war. 

But  the  story  of  the  thirteenth  year,  artificial  as  it  is, 
presents  a  picture  of  Hindu  courts  in  primitive  simplicity. 
Moreover,  it  is  a  satire  on  the  belief  in  ghosts  or  demons,  as 
lovers  of  fair  women.  This  belief  in  "spirit  lovers"  was 
common  enough  in  the  ancient  world,  and  finds  full  expres- 


1  The  story  of  this  exile  is  probably  a  myth,  which  had  no  place  in  the  origi- 
nal tradition,  but  was  inserted  at  a  later  period  in  the  Sanskrit  poem  of  the  Maha 
Bharata. 


sion  in  the  book  of  Tobit.  Sara,  the  daughter  of  Raguel, 
married  seven  husbands  in  succession,  but  each  one  was 
murdered  in  turn  by  a  demon  lover  named  Asmodeus. '  The 
same  belief  still  lingers  in  all  parts  of  India.  The  Hindu 
story  of  the  thirteenth  year  is  contrived  to  ridicule  such  a 
belief;  it  is  a  relic  of  an  age  of  Hindu  civilization  which 
has  died  out  of  the  world. 

According  to  the  Sanskrit  epic  the  Pandavas  proceeded 
to  a  city  named  Virata,  just  before  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  year.3  They  were  disguised  hi  various  ways,  in 
the  hope  of  entering  the  service  of  the  Raja,  who  was  also 
named  "Virata.  They  found  the  Raja  sitting  at  the  entrance- 
hall  to  his  palace,  surrounded  by  his  council  of  chiefs  or 
elders,  after  ancient  Hindu  fashion.  After  a  long  prelimi- 
nary conversation  all  the  five  Pandavas  were  taken  into  the 
service  of  the  Raja.  Yudhishthira  was  engaged  to  teach 
the  Raja  how  to  gamble.  Bhima,  the  giant,  was  appointed 
head  cook,  as  his  strength  would  enable  him  to  prevent  the 
under  cooks  from  wasting  or  stealing  the  victuals.  Arjuna 
was  disguised  as  a  eunuch,  and  engaged  to  teach  music  and 
dancing  to  the  daughter  of  the  Raja.  The  two  younger 
brothers  were  employed,  one  as  master  of  the  horse,  and 
the  other  as  master  of  the  cattle. 

There  was  some  difficulty  about  Draupadi.  She  had 
vowed  not  to  tie  up  her  hair;  this  was  evaded  by  twisting 
it  into  a  string  like  the  tail  of  a  serpent.  Her  beauty  ex- 
cited the  jealousy  of  the  Rani;  this  was  overcome  by  her 
telling  the  Rani  that  she  was  beloved  by  five  ghosts,  called 
Gandharvas,  who  would  murder  any  mortal  man  who  paid 
her  the  slightest  attention.  Accordingly  she  was  engaged 
as  lady's-maid  to  the  Rani. 

Bhima  soon  gained  the  favor  of  Raja  Virata.  A  foreign 
wrestler,  named  Jimuta,  had  put  all  the  warriors  of  the  Raja 


1  Tobit,  Chaps,  in.  to  VIII. 

8  General  Cunningham  identifies  this  city  with  the  modern  Bairat,  about  105 
miles  to  the  south  of  Delhi. 


30  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

to  shame,  so  that  none  dared  to  encounter  him.  Bhima  came 
forward,  and  vanquished  Jimuta,  and  put  him  to  death  amid 
the  acclamations  of  the  multitude.  The  Raja  leaped  from 
his  seat  with  joy,  and  bestowed  many  gifts  on  Bhima. 
From  that  tune  he  took  a  great  liking  to  Bhima,  and  made 
him  fight  with  lions,  tigers,  or  bears,  in  the  presence  of  his 
ladies. 

In  those  days  a  prince,  named  Kichaka,  was  dwelling  at 
Virata.  He  was  brother  of  the  Rani,  and  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  army  of  the  Raj.  He  did  what  he  pleased  at 
Virata,  according  to  the  old  saying,  "The  brother  of  the 
Rani  is  always  to  be  feared  by  the  Raja." 

Kichaka  became  enamored  of  Draupadi,  and  asked  her 
to  become  his  wife.  She  replied  that  she  could  not  marry 
him  because  of  her  five  Gandharva  lovers.  Kichaka  would 
not  be  refused ;  he  told  her  she  must  marry  him,  and  treated 
her  with  rudeness.  She  complained  to  the  Raja,  but  he 
would  do  nothing;  he  was  too  much  afraid  of  the  Rani's 
brother.  She  next  complained  to  Bhima,  and  he  promised 
that  she  should  be  revenged.  One  night  Kichaka  went  to 
the  palace  to  see  Draupadi,  but  met  Bhima  in  her  stead.  A 
desperate  battle  was  fought  in  the  music-room.  At  last 
Bhima  killed  Kichaka  and  left  him  dead  on  the  floor.  He 
then  went  off  to  sleep  in  the  kitchen,  without  saying  a  word 
to  any  one. 

Next  morning  the  dead  body  of  Kichaka  was  found  in 
the  music-room.  Every  bone  was  broken;  those  who  saw 
the  body  said  that  Kichaka  had  not  been  murdered  by  men, 
but  by  demons.  The  story  was  soon  told  in  the  streets  and 
bazars,  that  the  commander-in-chief  had  been  killed  by 
Gandharvas,  because  of  his  love  for  the  Rani's  waiting-maid. 
The  whole  city  was  in  an  uproar.  The  brothers  of  Kichaka 
came  to  the  palace  to  bring  away  the  dead  body  to  the  place 
of  burning.  They  saw  Draupadi  and  carried  her  off  like- 
wise to  burn  with  Kichaka,  and  compel  her  to  join  him  in 
the  world  of  shades.  Bhima  heard  her  screams.  He  drew 
his  hair  over  his  face,  so  that  no  man  should  know  him.  He 


HINDU   INDIA  31 

tore  up  a  tree  by  its  roots  to  serve  as  a  club.  He  fell  upon 
the  brothers  of  Kichaka  and  slew  every  one,  and  returned  to 
the  palace  by  a  secret  way. 

The  general  consternation  was  now  greater  than  ever. 
The  city  was  seized  with  a  panic.  The  Raja  and  the  coun- 
cil of  chieftains  were  in  mortal  fear  of  Draupadi  and  her 
Gandharvas.  The  Raja  was  afraid  to  speak  to  her.  The 
Rani  told  her  to  leave  the  city;  but  the  thirteenth  year  of 
concealment  was  nearly  over,  and  Draupadi  remained  in  the 
palace  in  spite  of  them  all. 

Meanwhile  the  death  of  Kichaka  had  been  noised  abroad. 
The  Rajas  round  about  said,  "Kichaka  is  dead;  let  us  in- 
vade the  Raj  of  Virata  and  carry  off  the  cattle. "  One  Raja 
invaded  the  northern  quarter,  and  carried  off  cows  and  buf- 
faloes; and  the  herdsmen  ran  to  the  city  to  tell  Raja  Virata. 
The  troops  were  called  out,  and  Raja  Virata  mounted  his 
chariot,  and  drove  off  to  recover  the  cattle. 

While  Virata  was  gone  to  the  northern  quarter  of  the  Raj, 
Duryodhana  and  the  other  Kauravas  invaded  the  southern 
quarter,  and  carried  off  more  cattle.  The  herdsmen  came  to 
the  city  complaining  and  lamenting,  but  there  was  no  Raja 
to  protect  them.  Arjuna  called  for  a  chariot,  put  on  his 
armor,  and  appeared  before  the  court,  with  his  weapons  in 
his  hands.  The  princess  and  her  damsels  laughed  merrily 
to  see  the  dancing-master  in  armor ;  they  all  cried  to  him  to 
bring  back  a  rich  spoil  of  silks  and  jewels.  In  this  manner 
Arjuna  drove  off  to  recover  the  cattle  from  the  Kauravas. 

At  this  point  the  story  loses  its  interest.  Arjuna  was 
discovered  by  the  Kauravas,  and  it  was  a  question  whether 
the  discovery  was  made  before  or  after  the  completion  of  the 
thirteenth  year.  The  question  was  never  settled.  Negotia- 
tions were  opened  which  might  have  been  begun  immedi- 
ately after  the  expulsion  of  the  Pandavas ;  although,  accord- 
ing to  the  Maha  Bharata,  they  were  not  begun  until  after 
the  completion  of  the  thirteenth  year  of  exile. 

Raja  Drupada,  the  father-in-law  of  the  Pandavas,  sent 
a  Brahman,  as  envoy  from  the  Pandavas  to  the  Maharaja 


32  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

of  Hastinapur.  The  Maharaja  called  the  council  together  to 
receive  the  envoy.  The  Brahman  spoke  thus  to  the  council : 
"An  envoy  is  the  tongue  of  the  party  by  whom  he  is  sent: 
If  he  fails  to  discharge  his  trust,  and  does  not  faithfully  re- 
peat his  master's  words,  he  is  guilty  of  treachery :  Have  I 
therefore  your  permission  to  repeat  the  message  sent  by  the 
Pandavas?"  The  whole  council  exclaimed, "Speak  the  words 
of  the  Pandavas  without  extenuation  and  without  exaggera- 
tion." Then  the  Brahman  spoke  as  foDows:  "The  Pan- 
davas send  their  salutations  and  speak  these  words:  'Dhrita- 
rashtra  and  Pandu  were  brothers,  as  all  men  know;  why 
then  should  the  sons  of  Dhritarashtra  inherit  the  whole  Raj, 
while  the  sons  of  Pandu  are  shut  out?  It  is  true  that  the 
Pandavas  have  lost  their  Raj  of  Khandava-prastha  in  a 
game  of  dice;  but  it  was  by  loaded  dice  and  false  play;  and 
unless  you  restore  their  inheritance  they  must  declare  war, 
and  the  blood  of  the  slain  will  be  upon  your  heads.'  " 

The  speech  of  the  Brahman  threw  the  council  into  a  tur- 
moil. The  Kauravas  wrangled  like  angry  kinsmen.  The 
points  of  the  debate  were  very  simple.  Was  there,  or  was 
there  not,  foul  play  at  the  gambling  match?  Were  the  Pan- 
davas discovered  by  the  Kauravas  before  or  after  the  close 
of  the  thirteenth  year?  Bhishma  praised  Arjuna  to  the  dis- 
gust of  Kama.  The  debate  was  ended  by  the  Maharaja, 
who  sent  his  charioteer,  Sanjaya,  with  a  reply  to  the 
Pandavas.1 

The  real  object  of  the  mission  of  Sanjaya  was  to  induce 
the  Pandavas  to  return  to  Hastinapur,  without  giving  them 
any  pledge  that  their  Raj  would  be  restored.  Maharaja 
Dhritarashtra  sent  a  message  which  was  duly  repeated  to 
the  Pandavas  and  their  allies.  He  poured  out  praises  upon 

1  Sanjaya  5s  said  to  have  been  the  minister  and  charioteer  of  Maharaja  Dhrit- 
arashtra. He  thus  held  an  important  post  in  the  court  of  Hastinapur.  Kama 
is  accounted  low-born,  because  he  was  the  son  of  a  charioteer.  The  origin  of 
this  discrepancy  is  discussed  in  the  larger  history.  The  Brahmanical  compilers 
of  the  Maha  Bharata  were  jealous  of  the  important  part  played  by  charioteers  in 
the  original  version  of  the  tradition,  and  therefore  represented  them  in  the  poem 
as  a  low-born  race  of  carters  and  wagoners. 


HINDU    INDIA  33 

the  Pandavas ;  he  said  that  enemies  and  friends  were  equally 
loud  in  extolling  them;  some  of  the  Kauravas  might  have 
used  harsh  language,  but  he  would  make  peace  between  all 
parties,  if  the  Pandavas  would  only  return  to  Hastinapur. 

The  Pandavas,  however,  were  not  to  be  entrapped.  Yud- 
hishthira  replied  that  neither  he  nor  his  brethren  would  re- 
turn to  Hastinapur,  unless  a  pledge  was  given  that  their  half 
of  the  Raj  would  be  restored.  Accordingly  both  parties  pre- 
pared for  war. 

There  is  little  in  the  war  of  the  Maha  Bharata  to  render 
it  memorable  in  after  generations,  beyond  the  horrible  tale 
of  slaughter.  In  its  original  form  it  was  not  associated  with 
any  sentiment  of  patriotism  or  religion,  such  as  animated  the 
children  of  Israel  during  the  conquest  of  the  promised  land. 
Neither  was  it  a  war  in  which  men  fought  to  wipe  out  dis- 
honor, as  the  Greeks  fought  the  Trojans  during  the  siege  of 
Troy.  Nor  was  it  a  war  between  men  of  different  blood  like 
that  between  Greece  and  Persia.  It  was  nothing  but  a  bat- 
tle between  kinsmen  for  the  possession  of  land. 

The  Kauravas  and  Pandavas  assembled  their  respective 
allies  on  a  famous  plain  round  a  lake  or  tank,  known  as 
Kuru-kshetra.  It  was  situated  about  fifty  or  sixty  miles 
from  modern  Delhi.  The  warriors  were  arrayed  against 
each  other,  and  stirred  up  every  angry  passion  by  abusing 
and  railing  at  each  other.  At  last  when  they  had  lashed 
each  other  into  fury  by  taunts  and  gibes,  they  rushed  against 
each  other  like  ferocious  beasts  or  madmen.  Some  threw 
stones;  others  fought  with  their  fists,  teeth,  and  nails,  or 
kicked  and  wrestled  till  one  or  other  was  killed.  Others 
fought  with  clubs,  knives,  swords,  spears,  javelins,  chakras, 
or  bows  and  arrows.  "Whenever  a  conqueror  had  overthrown 
his  adversary  he  severed  his  head  from  the  body  and  carried 
it  off  as  a  trophy. 

The  story  of  revenge  and  slaughter  was  one  which  fathers 
might  tell  their  sons  from  generation  to  generation,  as  a 
ghastly  moral  against  feuds  and  wars.  It  is  not  so  much 
a  description  of  a  general  battle,  as  of  a  series  of  single  com- 


34  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

bats  between  distinguished  warriors,  which  would  be  sung  in 
ballads  for  ages  afterward.  Bhishma,  the  patriarch  of  the 
royal  house  of  Hastinapur,  was  slain  by  Arjuna.  Drona 
engaged  in  mortal  combat  with  Drupada  to  settle  the  old 
feud  which  had  driven  him  into  exile.  Drupada  was  slain 
by  Drona;  but  his  son  Dhrishta-dyumna  revenged  his  death 
by  fighting  against  Drona  until  he  slew  him.  Bhima  en- 
gaged in  mortal  combat  with  Duhsasana,  the  man  who 
dragged  Draupadi  by  her  hair  into  the  gambling  pavilion. 
Bhima  overthrew  his  enemy,  cut  off  his  head,  and  drank  his 
blood  in  accordance  with  his  vow,  and  then  tied  up  the  dis- 
hevelled hair  of  Draupadi  while  his  fingers  were  dripping 
with  the  blood  of  the  evil-doer.  Lastly,  there  was  the 
crowning  contest  between  Arjuna  and  Kama.  They  fought 
in  war-chariots  with  their  bows  and  arrows  in  their  hands. 
Arjuna  was  almost  overcome  by  the  arrows  of  Karna,  when 
the  wheel  of  Kama's  chariot  sank  into  the  earth,  and  would 
not  move.  Kama  called  out  to  his  adversary  to  hold  his 
hand  until  he  recovered  the  wheel;  but  Arjuna  saw  his 
opportunity,  and  shot  Karna  dead  with  an  arrow. 

The  details  of  the  battle  are  interminable,  and  occupy 
volumes.  One  dreadful  night  the  warriors  fought  through 
the  darkness  with  a  weapon  in  one  hand  and  a  torch  in  the 
other.  The  battle  was  really  over  on  the  seventeenth  day, 
when  Bhima  slew  Duhsasana,  and  Arjuna  slew  Kama.  On 
the  eighteenth  day  Duryodhana  rallied  his  forces  for  a  gen- 
eral engagement,  but  all  the  Kauravas  excepting  himself 
were  slain  upon  the  field,  and  he  fled  away  to  the  lake  hi 
the  centre  of  the  plain.  Bhima  ran  after  Duryodhana,  and 
mocked  and  reviled  him  until  the  ghastly  warrior  came  out 
and  engaged  in  a  final  combat.  The  two  men  fought  with 
clubs,  until  Bhima  struck  a  foul  blow,  which  smashed  the 
knee  of  Duryodhana,  and  then  left  him  to  die  where  he  lay.1 

The  Pandavas  had  got  the  mastery,  but  the  bloodshed 

1  The  foul  blow  of  Bhima  consisted  in  his  striking  Duryodhana  below  the 
waist.  The  blow  was  given  in  accordance  with  the  vow  which  Bhima  had  made 
in  the  gambling  pavilion. 


HINDU   INDIA  35 

was  not  over.  There  was  yet  to  be  a  slaughter  of  sleeping 
men  in  the  camp  of  the  Pandavas;  it  is  known  as  "the  re- 
venge of  Aswatthama. "  Drona,  the  father  of  Aswatthama, 
had  slain  Drupada,  and  had  then  been  killed  by  Drupada's 
son  Dhrishta-dyumna.  Aswatthama  lived  to  carry  on  the 
feud,  and  swore  to  be  revenged  on  Dhrishta-dyumna  and 
the  Pandavas. 

At  evening  time  Aswatthama  and  two  surviving  warriors 
stood  by  the  side  of  the  wounded  Duryodhana.  They  cheered 
his  dying  agonies  by  pledging  themselves  to  avenge  his  death. 
They  left  him  on  the  field,  and  sat  under  a  tree  to  consider 
what  to  do.  Suddenly  Aswatthama  learned  a  lesson  from 
an  omen.  Crows  were  roosting  in  the  tree;  an  owl  ap- 
proached them  warily ;  he  killed  them  one  at  a  time  with- 
out awakening  them.  "Thus,"  cried  Aswatthama,  "we 
will  revenge  ourselves  on  the  sleeping  Pandavas;  we  will 
kill  them  one  at  a  time,  as  the  owl  has  killed  the  crows." 

The  camp  of  the  Pandavas  was  on  one  side  of  the  lake, 
and  the  camp  of  the  Kauravas  on  the  other.  The  Pandavas 
had  left  Draupadi  and  her  sons  in  charge  of  allies  and  ser- 
vants, and  had  gone  to  the  camp  of  the  Kauravas  to  take 
possession  of  the  spoil,  and  pass  the  night  there. 

At  midnight  Aswatthama  and  his  two  comrades  ap- 
proached the  camp  of  the  Pandavas.  It  was  surrounded 
by  a  deep  trench,  and  had  but  one  entrance.  Aswatthama 
posted  his  two  comrades  at  the  entrance,  and  stole  off  to  the 
quarters  of  Dhrishta-dyumna.  The  son  of  Drupada  was 
sleeping  on  the  ground.  Aswatthama  awoke  him  by  kick- 
ing his  head.  The  doomed  warrior  saw  his  enemy  standing 
over  him  with  a  drawn  sword.  He  cried  out  "Treachery!" 
Aswatthama  broke  his  skull  with  the  back  of  the  sword,  and 
silenced  him  forever.  He  then  rushed  out  of  the  tent  to  be 
revenged  on  the  Pandavas. 

The  Pandavas  were  away  at  the  camp  of  the  Kauravas, 
but  Draupadi  and  her  sons  were  sleeping  at  their  quarters. 
The  young  men  were  awakened  by  the  turmoil  in  the  quar- 
ters of  Dhrishta-dyumna.  They  ran  out  one  after  the  other, 


36  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

and  were  cut  down  and  killed  by  Aswatthama.  By  this 
time  the  whole  camp  was  in  disorder.  Friends  and  kinsmen 
were  shouting  and  fighting  against  each  other.  The  women 
filled  the  air  with  shrieks  and  screams.  Numbers  were  killed 
and  wounded  on  all  sides.  Some  tried  to  escape  from  the 
camp,  but  were  cut  down  by  the  two  men  at  the  entrance. 
Aswatthama  lost  his  way  in  the  darkness,  but  set  alight  to 
a  great  pile  of  firewood.  The  camp  was  filled  with  a  sudden 
glare  of  fire  and  flame.  Aswatthama  escaped  amid  the  up- 
roar, gamed  the  entrance,  and  disappeared  with  his  comrades 
into  the  outer  world. 

The  day  was  just  dawning  as  the  three  men  walked  across 
the  plain  of  Kuru-kshetra.  Wolves  and  jackals  had  begun 
to  attack  the  corpses,  but  were  scared  away  by  the  light 
of  morning.  The  three  warriors  took  a  last  farewell  of  the 
dying  Duryodhana;  they  gladdened  his  last  moments  with 
the  story  of  their  revenge;  and  then,  as  he  gave  up  the  ghost, 
they  fled  away  into  the  jungle  and  were  heard  of  no  more. 

The  final  scene  in  the  great  war  is  told  with  much  pathos. 
The  agony  of  Draupadi  and  the  woe  of  the  Panda vas  may 
be  passed  over  in  silence.  The  sympathies  of  the  reader  are 
not  with  the  victors,  but  with  the  mourners  for  the  dead. 
As  the  day  began  to  dawn,  the  widows,  daughters,  and 
mothers  of  the  slain  came  on  the  field  of  Kuru-kshetra  weep- 
ing and  wailing,  to  perform  the  last  rites  of  their  dead  kins- 
men. The  funeral  piles  were  burning,  but  no  widow  threw 
herself  into  the  flames.  The  imagination  rests  upon  the  weep- 
ing women,  without  the  additional  horror  of  female  sacrifices, 
which  characterized  a  later  period  of  Hindu  history.1 

Next  followed  another  painful  scene.  The  blind  old  Ma- 
haraja Dhritarashtra,  and  his  wretched  wife  Gandhari,  were 
borne  down  with  grief  for  the  loss  of  their  sons;  yet  both 


1  It  is  difficult  to  reconcile  the  fact  that  no  widow  performed  a  Sati  after  the 
war  of  the  Maha  Bharata  with  the  statement  that  Madri,  the  younger  wife  of 
Pandu,  perished  on  his  funeral  pile.  There  was  evidently  some  conflict  of  author- 
ity as  regards  the  rite  of  Sati ;  possibly  the  story  of  Madri  is  an  interpolation, 
and  the  rite  of  Sati  originated  in  a  later  age. 


HINDU   INDIA  37 

came  out  of  Hastinapur,  with  the  touching  submission  of 
Hindus,  to  bend  to  the  decrees  of  fate,  and  pay  their  hom- 
age to  the  victors.  This  done,  they  went  off  to  the  jungle 
to  take  up  their  abode  on  the  bank  of  the  Ganges,  and  spend 
their  last  years  in  devotion  and  prayer. 

Amid  these  scenes  of  mourning  the  conquerors  were  ex- 
ulting in  their  victory.  Drums  were  beaten,  trumpets  were 
sounded,  flags  were  flying,  while  Yudhishthira  and  his 
brethren  went  in  joyful  procession  to  take  possession  of 
the  Raj  of  Hastinapur.  But  the  songs  of  triumph  must 
have  jarred  upon  ears  that  were  filled  with  the  cries  of  the 
mourners  for  the  dead  and  dying. 

The  end  of  the  story  may  be  told  in  a  few  words.  Yud- 
hishthira and  his  brethren  became  great  conquerors;  they 
are  said  to  have  subdued  every  Raja  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  India.  When  they  had  brought  their  con- 
quests to  a  close,  they  celebrated  a  horse  feast  or  sacrifice, 
known  as  an  Aswamedha;  it  was  an  assertion  of  their  sov- 
ereignty over  the  empire  of  India.  All  the  Rajas  whom 
they  conquered  were  summoned  to  Indra-prastha  to  pay 
their  homage  to  the  conquerors,  and  to  feast  on  horse-flesh 
after  the  manner  of  the  ancient  Kshatriyas.  But  before 
describing  the  Aswamedha,  it  will  be  as  well  to  review  the 
scope  and  subject  matter  of  the  whole  poem  of  the  Maha 
Bharata. 

The  foregoing  narrative  is  a  bare  outline  of  the  original 
tradition  of  the  Maha  Bharata.  It  records  events  which  are 
referred  to  the  fifteenth  century  before  the  Christian  era; 
when  the  Israelites  were  delivered  out  of  Egypt,  and  con- 
ducted by  Moses  to  the  promised  land.  After  an  apparent 
interval  of  unrecorded  centuries,  the  story  of  the  great  war 
was  retold  in  the  Sanskrit  poem  as  a  religious  parable,  re- 
plete with  spiritual  meanings  and  pious  teachings.  The 
poem  of  the  Maha  Bharata  is  of  such  inordinate  length  that 
it  may  have  been  composed  by  a  variety  of  bards;  but  the 
work  is  referred  to  one  particular  Brahman  sage,  who  is 
known  by  the  name  of  Vyasa,  or  "the  arranger." 


38  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

Vyasa  is  represented  as  playing  an  important  part  in  the 
events  recorded  in  the  Maha  Bharata ;  but  everything  which 
is  told  about  him  is  improbable  or  supernatural.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  an  illegitimate  son  of  the  damsel  who  after- 
ward married  Maharaja  Santanu;  to  have  been  the  real 
father  of  Dhritarashtra  and  Pandu ;  to  have  caused  Gand- 
hari  to  have  a  hundred  sons  at  a  birth.  Sometimes  he 
appears  in  an  abrupt  and  supernatural  manner  to  impart 
religious  instruction  to  the  Pandavas.  He  directed  Arjuna 
to  perform  penance  on  the  Himalayas,  and  ordered  Yudhish- 
thira  to  celebrate  the  Aswamedha  as  an  atonement  for  sin. 
Sometimes  he  appears  to  explain  away  something  that  is 
opposed  to  Brahmanical  ideas,  such  as  the  marriage  of 
Draupadi  to  Yudhishthira  and  his  brethren. 

The  religious  teaching  of  the  Maha  Bharata  is  evidently 
the  product  of  a  later  age  than  that  in  which  the  great  war 
was  fought.  The  Kauravas  and  Pandavas  sacrificed  to 
Indra,  the  king  of  gods,  and  appear  to  have  worshipped 
the  gods  of  fire,  water,  wind,  and  other  Vedic  deities. 
But  the  compilers  of  the  Maha  Bharata  resolved  all  these 
gods  into  one  Supreme  Spirit,  under  the  name  of  Vishnu, 
and  taught  the  worship  of  Krishna  as  an  incarnation  of 
Vishnu. 

Thus  Krishna  appears  in  the  Maha  Bharata  as  a  mortal 
hero,  and  as  the  Supreme  Being.  Like  Vyasa  he  plays  an 
important  part  in  the  history  of  the  great  war,  but  generally 
in  an  improbable  and  supernatural  manner.  He  is  a  medi- 
ator in  times  of  feud,  and  a  consoler  in  times  of  affliction. 
He  was  present  at  the  Swayamvara  of  Draupadi  to  mediate 
between  the  Pandavas  and  the  angry  Rajas.  He  suddenly 
appeared  in  the  gambling  pavilion  to  prevent  Duryodhana 
from  insulting  Draupadi.  He  was  mixed  up  in  the  negotia- 
tions which  preceded  the  great  war,  flying  vast  distances 
through  the  air  in  a  moment  of  time.  The  Kauravas  plotted 
to  seize  him  at  Hastinapur,  but  he  became  manifest  as  the 
Supreme  Being ;  all  the  gods  issued  from  his  body,  flames  of 
fire  fell  from  his  eyes,  and  his  form  was  as  radiant  with 


HINDU   INDIA  39 

golden  beams  as  the  sun  at  noonday.  He  appeared  to  Ar- 
juna  on  the  morning  of  the  first  day  of  the  war.  Arjuna 
was  shrinking  from  the  slaughter  of  friends  and  kinsmen ; 
he  would  rather  die,  he  said,  than  fight  against  such  good 
men  as  Bhishma  and  Drona.  Krishna  consoled  him  with 
the  doctrine  that  death  was  but  the  transmigration  of  the 
soul  from  one  body  to  another.  He  stirred  Arjuna  into 
action  by  assuring  him  that  fighting  was  the  duty  of  all 
Kshatriyas;  and  that  if  he  proved  himself  a  coward,  and 
failed  to  fight,  he  could  never  hope  to  enter  the  heaven  of 
Indra. 

The  story  of  the  great  war  has  been  reduced  in  the  fore- 
going pages  to  a  simple  narrative  of  life  and  manners.  But 
it  is  told  in  the  Maha  Bharata  with  all  the  exuberance  and 
exaggeration  of  Oriental  imaginations  revelling  in  an  ideal 
world.  Every  Raja  in  India  is  said  to  have  been  present  at 
the  Swayamvara  of  Draupadi  and  the  Raja-suya  of  Yud- 
hishthira.  Every  Raja  is  said  to  have  fought  in  the  great 
war  of  the  Maha  Bharata,  on  the  side  of  the  Kauravas,  or 
on  that  of  the  Pandavas.  The  armies  at  Kuru-kshetra  were 
thus  reckoned  by  millions  of  millions;  elephants  and  chariots 
by  tens  of  millions.  The  battle  is  described  with  a  grandeur 
greater  than  that  of  the  war  of  Zeus  against  the  Titans. 
Drums  were  beaten,  trumpets  and  war-shells  were  sounded, 
and  gorgeous  banners  were  waving  in  the  air.  Gigantic 
Rajas,  arrayed  in  golden  mail,  and  armed  with  supernatural 
weapons,  appeared  in  chariots  radiant  with  strings  of  jewels 
and  bracelets  of  gold  and  pearls.  Vast  masses  of  elephants 
and  chariots,  horse  and  foot,  were  swayed  to  and  fro  like  the 
waves  of  the  sea.  The  air  was  darkened  by  darts  and  ar- 
rows, or  illuminated  with  the  flashing  of  swords  and  spears. 
Rivers  of  blood  issued  from  mountains  of  slain.  Lastly, 
frantic  widows,  with  dishevelled  hair,  shrieked  over  the 
slaughtered  bodies  of  husbands  and  sons,  not  by  tens  or 
hundreds,  but  by  millions. 

The  Aswamedha,  or  horse  sacrifice  of  Yudhishthira,  is 
described  on  an  equally  grand  scale.  The  primitive  idea 


40  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

of  an  Aswamedha  was  to  let  a  horse  loose  for  a  year  as  a 
challenge  to  all  the  neighboring  Rajas.  Whenever  the  horse 
wandered  into  the  territory  of  another  Raja,  there  was  a 
battle  for  the  supremacy.  It  was  a  rude  sport  adapted  to 
a  warlike  race  like  the  ancient  Kshatriyas.  If  a  warrior 
gained  a  succession  of  victories,  he  slaughtered  the  horse, 
and  served  it  up  at  a  great  feast  to  all  the  conquered  Rajas. 
In  this  manner  Arjuna  is  said  to  have  followed  the  horse 
of  Yudhishthira,  and  conquered  all  the  Rajas  in  India.  He 
then  summoned  all  the  Rajas  to  attend  the  Aswamedha, 
to  pay  their  homage  to  Yudhishthira,  and  to  feast  on  the 
horse  which  was  roasted  for  the  occasion.  "Whether  Arjuna 
did  or  did  not  conquer  all  the  Rajas  in  India  is  a  question 
which  the  reader  must  decide  for  himself.  If  he  did,  the 
horse  must  have  travelled  immense  distances.  How  the 
horse-feast  became  converted  in  after  times  into  an  atone- 
ment for  sin  is  a  religious  question  which  may  be  left  to 
conjecture.1 

The  story  of  the  great  war  concludes  with  a  grand  crea- 
tion of  Hindu  imagination.  It  has  already  been  seen  that 
the  blind  Maharaja  of  Hastinapur  went  away  with  his  wife 
Gandhari  to  dwell  in  retirement  on  the  bank  of  the  Ganges. 
Fifteen  years  after  the  great  war,  the  widows  and  mothers 
of  those  who  had  been  slain  went  to  the  same  spot  to  mourn 
for  the  loss  of  their  husbands  and  sons.  Vyasa,  the  Brah- 
man sage,  appeared  among  the  women  to  console  them. 
He  stood  on  the  bank  of  the  Ganges  and  invoked  the  dead 
warriors  by  their  various  names.  Presently  the  river  began 
to  foam  and  boil,  and  a  great  noise  rose  out  of  the  waters. 
The  ghosts  of  the  departed  heroes  appeared  above  the  sur- 
face in  all  the  glory  and  magnificence  which  they  displayed 
on  the  plain  of  Kuru-kshetra.  Bhishma  and  Drona,  seated 
in  their  chariots  in  full  armor,  ascended  out  of  the  waters 
with  all  their  armies,  arrayed  as  they  were  on  the  first  day 


1  Some  information  on  this  point  will  be  found  in  Chapter  IV.  on  the  "Re- 
ligion and  Literature"  of  the  Hindus. 


HINDU   INDIA  41 

of  the  Malia  Bharata.  Next  came  Kama  and  Duryodhana, 
together  with  Sakuni  and  Duhsasana,  and  many  other  war- 
riors and  Rajas.  There  too  were  the  sons  of  Draupadi,  and 
her  brother  Dhrishta-dyumna,  and  all  the  men  who  had  been 
slain  in  the  revenge  of  Aswatthama.  All  appeared  in  great 
beauty  and  splendor,  with  horses,  chariots,  banners,  and 
arms.  But  all  enmity  had  departed  from  them,  and  they 
were  all  in  perfect  friendship  with  one  another.  Then  the 
widows  and  other  women  were  overjoyed;  not  a  trace  of 
grief  remained  among  them.  "Widows  went  to  their  hus- 
bands, daughters  to  their  fathers,  and  mothers  to  their  sons; 
and  all  the  fifteen  years  of  sorrow  were  forgotten  in  the 
ecstasy  of  meeting.  The  night  passed  away  in  the  fulness 
of  joy;  but  when  the  morning  dawned  all  the  dead  mounted 
their  horses  and  chariots,  and  disappeared  in  the  waters. 
Then  Vyasa  gave  the  widows  leave  to  follow  their  husbands; 
and  having  paid  their  devotions  they  plunged  into  the  Ganges 
and  joined  their  husbands  in  the  heaven  of  Indra.1 


1  All  Kshatriyas  who  perished  on  the  field  of  battle  were  supposed  to  go  to 
Swarga,  the  heaven  of  Indra;  but  when  their  merits  were  sufficiently  rewarded 
they  returned  to  the  world,  and  entered  upon  a  new  chain  of  existences  in  suc- 
cessive transmigrations.  (See  Chap.  IV.) 


42  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 


CHAPTER   II 
RAMAYANA— OUDE 

ABOUT  B.C.  1000 

THE  Ramayana  is  a  Sanskrit  epic  like  the  Maha  Bha- 
rata,  but  the  main  tradition  reveals  a  higher  stage 
of  civilization.1  The  principal  scenes  are  laid  in 
Ayodhya,  or  Oude,  a  large  territory  on  the  northern  bank 
of  the  Ganges;  and  north  of  the  land  of  Rakshasas  and 
Asuras,  described  in  the  Maha  Bharata.  The  Raj  of  Ayo- 
dhya thus  occupied  the  centre  of  Hindustan."  Its  capital 
was  also  named  Ayodhya,  and  was  situated  on  the  river 
Sarayu ;"  it  was  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  southeast  of  Has- 
tinapur  and  Delhi.  The  Maharaja  of  Ayodhya  was  married 
to  three  wives  or  Ranis.  He  had  eight  chosen  ministers; 
two  Brahman  priests  as  his  advisers;  and  a  great  council 
of  state  for  the  exercise  of  certain  constitutional  powers. 

Dasaratha,  Maharaja  of  Ayodhya,  had  four  sons  by  his 
three  Ranis;  namely,  Rama,  Lakshmana,  Satrughna,  and 
Bharata.  Rama  was  the  son  of  Kausalya,  the  first  and 


1  An  approximate  date  of  the  reign  of  Rama  is  fixed  by  the  following  data. 
General  Cunningham  has  fixed  the  war  of  the  Maha  Bharata  in  the  fifteenth  cent- 
ury before  the  Christian  era.  Mention  is  made  in  the  Maha  Bharata  of  a  certain 
Rituparna  as  Raja  of  Ayodhya.  Rituparna  reigned  in  the  fifteenth  generation 
before  Rama,  as  shown  in  the  genealogical  lists.  (See  Tod's  Rajasthan,  vol.  i.) 
Reckoning  a  generation  at  thirty  years,  there  would  be  an  interval  of  450  years 
between  the  war  of  the  Maha  Bharata  and  the  reign  of  Rama.  The  date  of  the 
composition  of  the  Ramayana  is  a  very  different  matter;  perhaps  the  poem  was 
composed  more  than  a  thousand  years  after  the  actual  exile  of  Rama. 

8  The  Raj  is  known  in  the  Ramayana  as  the  Raj  of  Kosala ;  and  the  name 
of  Ayodhya,  or  Oude,  is  only  applied  to  the  city.  The  name  of  Kosala  is  impor- 
tant in  dealing  with  Buddhist  legends. 

3  The  river  Sarayu  is  now  known  as  the  Gogra.  The  site  of  the  ancient 
city  of  Ayodhya  is  still  to  be  traced  among  the  mounds  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Fyzabad. 


HINDU    INDIA  43 

chief  wife.  Lakshmana  and  Satrughna  were  the  sons  of  the 
middle  wife.  Bharata  was  the  son  of  the  last  wife,  the  reign- 
ing favorite,  the  young  and  beautiful  Kaikeyi.  The  plot  of 
the  Ramayana  turns  upon  the  jealousy  between  Kausalya 
and  Kaikeyi,  and  the  rival  claims  of  Rama  and  Bharata. 

Rama,  the  eldest  son  by  Kausalya,  had  been  fortunate 
and  happy.  The  Raja  of  Mithila,  to  the  eastward  of  Oude,1 
proclaimed  the  Swayamvara  of  his  daughter  Sita.  There 
was  a  huge  bow,  and  Sita  was  to  be  given  in  marriage  to 
the  Raja  who  could  bend  the  bow.  The  Swayamvara  was 
held,  but  not  a  Raja  could  lift  the  bow  from  the  ground. 
At  last  Rama  took  up  the  bow,  and  bent  it  until  it  broke 
in  twain ;  and  in  due  course  he  became  the  husband  of  the 
beautiful  Sita. 

At  last  the  time  arrived  for  the  appointment  of  a  Yuva- 
raja  or  "little  Raja."  According  to  the  story,  Rama  was 
the  universal  favorite.  Ministers,  chieftains,  and  the  people 
were  all  loud  in  their  praises  of  Rama.  The  Maharaja  re- 
solved on  appointing  Rama  to  the  post  of  Yuva-raja.  He 
got  rid  of  Bharata  by  sending  him  with  his  half-brother 
Satrughna  on  a  visit  to  Kaikeyi's  father,  the  Raja  of  Giri- 
vraja,  seven  days'  journey  from  Ayodhya.8  The  Maharaja 
summoned  Rama  to  the  palace  and  told  him  that  on  the 
morrow  he  would  be  installed  as  Yuva-raja.  Meanwhile 
Rama  was  to  keep  a  careful  watch  throughout  the  night, 
lest  Bharata  should  suspect  what  was  going  on,  and  return 
to  Ayodhya  and  upset  the  arrangement.3 

According  to  the  Ramayana,  the  whole  city  of  Ayodhya 
was  in  a  blaze  of  joy  and  exultation  at  the  approaching 


1  The  Raj  of  Mithila  corresponded  to  the  modern  Tirhut. 

9  Giri-vraja  was  the  old  name  of  Rajagriha,  the  modem  Rajgir,  in  Behar.  In 
ancient  times  it  was  a  centre  of  Buddhism,  and  suggests  the  idea  of  a  religious 
element  in  the  antagonism  between  Rama  and  Bharata.  Rama  was  certainly  a 
champion  o.f  the  Brahmans.  Bharata  may  have  been  a  representative  of  a  Bud- 
dhist faction. 

3  The  jealousy  between  the  first  wife  and  the  youngest  is  as  old  as  polygamy. 
Did  not  Jacob  prefer  Rachel  to  Leah,  and  Joseph  or  Benjamin  to  his  eldest  son 
Reuben?  The  reader  must  judge  for  himself  whether  the  Maharaja  did  not  in 
his  heart  prefer  Bharata  to  Rama,  although  he  made  a  show  of  favoring  Rama. 


44  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

installation  of  Rama.  The  houses  were  illuminated  through- 
out the  night  with  endless  clusters  of  lamps.  At  early  dawn 
the  people  watered  the  streets,  strewed  the  roads  with  flow- 
ers, and  set  up  gay  banners  in  all  directions.  The  news  of 
the  installation  spread  far  and  wide.  Crowds  of  country 
people  flocked  into  Ayodhya.  Singers,  musicians,  and  danc- 
ing-girls delighted  the  hearts  of  young  and  old.  Even  the 
little  children,  who  were  playing  in  the  courtyards  and 
under  the  porticoes,  kept  on  saying  to  one  another,  "This 
day  Rama  is  to  be  anointed  Yuva-raja." 

All  this  while  a  very  different  scene  was  being  enacted 
in  the  palace.  On  the  previous  day  Kaikeyi,  the  youngest 
wife,  was  unaware  that  Rama  was  to  be  installed.  The 
Maharaja  had  promised  to  see  her  in  the  evening,  and  pur- 
posed coaxing  her  to  agree  to  the  appointment  of  Rama. 
But  his  intentions  were  thwarted.  A  slave-girl  belonging 
to  Kaikeyi,  named  Manthara,  had  gone  to  the  roof  of  the 
palace  and  discovered  that  the  whole  city  was  illuminated 
for  the  coming  installation  of  Rama.  She  ran  to  the  apart- 
ments of  her  mistress,  and  told  her  that  Bharata  was  ex- 
cluded from  the  throne ;  that  the  Maharaja  had  sent  Bharata 
to  his  grandfather,  in  order  to  install  Rama  as  Yuva-raja. 

Kaikeyi  saw  through  the  whole  intrigue.  She  threw  off 
her  jewels  and  scattered  them  over  the  floor  of  her  room. 
She  untied  her  hair,  and  dishevelled  it  over  her  shoulders. 
She  threw  herself  upon  the  ground  and  covered  her  face 
with  the  darkness  of  anger. 

At  this  crisis  the  Maharaja  entered  the  apartments  of 
Kaikeyi.  It  is  needless  to  dwell  upon  what  followed.  The 
.doting  old  Maharaja  was  in  sore  distress;  for  a  long  time 
Kaikeyi  would  not  speak  to  him;  then  she  stormed  at  him; 
finally  she  befooled  him.  She  insisted  that  Bharata  should 
be  installed  as  Yuva-raja,  and  that  Rama  should  be  sent 
into  exile  for  fourteen  years.  The  Maharaja  was  a  helpless 
slave  in  the  hands  of  Kaikeyi ;  he  could  not  resist  her,  and 
at  last  was  compelled  to  yield  to  her  imperious  will. 

At  early  morning,  while  the  city  was  preparing  for  the 


HINDU    INDIA 


45 


INDIA 

to  illustrate 
THERAMAVANA 


46  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

installation,  Rama  was  summoned  to  the  palace,  and  ush- 
ered into  the  presence  of  his  father.  The  Maharaja  was 
speechless  from  grief.1  Kaikeyi  was  exulting  in  her  triumph 
over  the  first  wife.  She  told  Rama  his  fate  in  words  of  steel. 
Rama  received  the  news  like  a  model  prince  who  had  been 
trained  by  Brahmans.  He  showed  neither  anger  nor  sor- 
row; his  face  was  an  unruffled  calm.  He  prepared  to  obey 
the  commands  of  his  father  without  a  murmur.  He  was 
bent  on  going  into  exile  with  as  much  tranquillity  as  if  he 
had  been  ordered  to  ascend  the  throne. 

Rama  left  the  presence  of  the  Maharaja  and  Kaikeyi  to 
carry  the  news  to  his  mother  Kausalya.  The  princess  had 
been  spending  the  night  in  offering  sacrifices  to  Vishnu  in 
behalf  of  her  beloved  son.  She  had  gloried  in  the  thought 
that  the  machinations  of  Kaikeyi  had  been  defeated,  and 
that  Rama  was  to  be  appointed  Yuva-raja.  In  one  moment 
the  cup  of  happiness  was  dashed  to  the  ground.  Instead  of 
reigning  as  Maharaja  in  the  city  of  Ayodhya,  her  son  was 
to  go  as  an  exile  into  the  jungle.  His  place  upon  the  throne 
was  to  be  filled  by  the  son  of  her  detested  rival.  She  her- 
self, deprived  of  the  protection  of  Rama,  was  to  be  exposed 
to  the  caprices  and  domination  of  Kaikeyi,  as  the  mother  of 
the  future  Maharaja.  In  agony  of  soul,  Kausalya  implored 
Rama  to  resist  the  commands  of  his  father;  to  assume  the 
government  of  the  Raj ;  and,  if  opposed,  to  slay  the  royal 
dotard  who  had  become  the  slave  to  Kaikeyi.  She  was  his 
mother,  and  her  commands,  she  said,  were  as  binding  upon 
him  as  those  of  his  father  Dasaratha. 

Rama  was  not  to  be  moved  from  his  high  resolve.  He 
was  deaf  to  all  suggestions  of  disobedience,  rebellion,  or 
parricide.  He  told  his  mother  that  the  Maharaja  was  her 
husband  and  her  god,  and  that  she  was  bound  to  obey  him 
whatever  might  be  his  commands. 

Kausalya  next  entreated  Rama  to  take  her  with  him  into 
the  jungle.  She  could  not  live  in  the  palace  to  endure  the 

1  The  exaggerated  accounts  of  the  Maharaja's  sorrowing  over  the  exile  ol 
Rama  give  rise  to  the  suspicion  that  his  grief  was  all  a  sham. 


HINDU   INDIA  47 

insults  of  Kaikeyi  and  the  contempt  of  the  slave-girls.  But 
Rama  was  inexorable.  By  taking  his  mother  into  the  jungle 
he  would  make  her  a  widow  while  her  husband  was  alive. 
She  would  violate  her  duty  as  a  wife,  and  he  would  violate 
his  duty  as  a  son. 

Rama  left  his  mother,  to  return  to  his  own  palace,  and 
break  the  news  to  his  wife  Sita.  The  young  wife  was  not 
cast  down  by  her  husband's  doom;  but  she  was  angry  when 
he  proposed  going  alone  into  exile,  and  leaving  her  behind 
at  Ayodhya.  She  declared  that  a  wife  must  share  the  fort- 
unes of  her  husband,  and  that  she  must  accompany  him  into 
the  jungle.  Rama  dwelt  upon  the  dangers  and  privations 
of  jungle  life ;  but  his  words  were  thrown  away.  She  prayed 
and  wept  until  he  allowed  her  to  share  his  exile.  He  also 
permitted  his  half-brother  Lakshmana  to  accompany  them 
into  the  jungle. 

The  story  of  the  exile  of  Rama  is  suggestive.  The  first 
and  second  exiles  of  the  Pandavas,  as  told  in  the  Maha 
Bharata,  are  somewhat  mythical;  they  might  be  omitted 
altogether  without  interfering  with  the  current  of  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  great  war.  The  exile  of  Rama  is  historical ;  it 
forms  an  essential  portion  of  the  main  tradition.  The  infer- 
ence follows  that  the  horrible  slaughter  of  kinsmen  in  the 
war  of  the  Maha  Bharata  left  a  lasting  impression  upon  his- 
tory. It  taught  a  wholesome  lesson  to  the  ancient  world 
that  fratricidal  wars  were  the  ruin  of  empires.  After  the 
war  of  the  Maha  Bharata,  a  sentence  of  exile  became  the 
rule  in  cases  of  domestic  feuds,  as  the  only  safeguard  against 
fratricidal  war. 

The  story  of  the  exile  of  Rama  is  however  contradictory. 
In  modern  times  the  sentence  of  exile  among  the  princes  of 
Rajputana  has  been  carried  out  with  funereal  pomp.  The 
offender  was  clothed  in  black,  invested  with  a  black  sword 
and  buckler,  mounted  on  a  black  horse,  and  solemnly  com- 
manded to  depart  out  of  the  limits  of  the  Raj.1  Henceforth 

1  See  the  larger  History  of  India,  voL  ii.  chap.  8. 


48  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

the  exiled  prince  either  entered  into  foreign  service,  like 
Drona,  or  led  the  life  of  a  bandit  and  outlaw.1 

According  to  the  Ramayana,  Rama  and  Lakshmana  led 
the  life  of  religious  devotees.  They  were  supposed  to  live 
on  roots  and  vegetables,  and  to  pass  then*  time  hi  religious 
austerities,  abstracted  from  the  outer  world.  But  traces  of 
the  funereal  ceremonial  are  still  to  be  found  in  the  poem. 
Rama,  accompanied  by  his  wife  Sita,  and  his  brother  Laksh- 
mana, walked  on  bare  feet  through  the  streets  of  Ayodhya 
to  the  palace  of  the  Maharaja,  amid  the  tears  and  lamenta- 
tions of  the  people.  They  took  their  leave  of  the  Maharaja 
and  Kaikeyi  like  doomed  exiles.  They  were  clothed  in 
dresses  made  of  the  bark  of  trees,  and  despatched  to  the 
frontier  in  the  Maharaja's  own  chariot.  The  Ramayana  also 
tells  how  the  exiles  shot  deer  hi  the  jungle,  and  lived  on  flesh 
meat,  like  other  Kshatriyas.  Moreover,  they  were  soon 
engaged  in  wars  against  Rakshasas  and  demons.  Such  a 
mode  of  life  was  certainly  more  fitted  for  Rajputs  than  for 
Brahmans,  for  political  exiles  than  for  religious  devotees. 

The  journey  in  the  royal  chariot  from  the  capital  at 
Ayodhya  to  the  frontier  town  of  Sringavera  occupied  some 
days.*  At  night  the  chariot  halted  beneath  trees,  and  the 
royal  exiles  slept  on  beds  of  leaves.  At  Sringavera  the  char- 
ioteer left  the  exiles,  and  returned  to  the  city  of  Ayodhya, 
carrying  loving  mesages  from  Rama  to  his  father  Dasa- 
ratha. 

The  town  of  Sringavera,  the  modern  Sungroor,  was  sit- 
uated on  the  northern  bank  of  the  Ganges,  about  twenty 
miles  from  Allahabad.  It  was  the  frontier  town  of  Ayodhya 
against  the  Bhils.  It  thus  forms  a  landmark  between  the 


1  The  exile  of  Drona  differed  altogether  from  that  of  Rama.  It  only  lasted 
until  he  had  procured  the  means  of  revenge.  Rama  was  bound  over  not  to  re- 
turn to  Ayodhya  for  a  period  of  fourteen  years. 

8  There  were  at  least  two  rivers  to  be  crossed  betweeen  the  city  of  Ayodhya 
on  the  river  Sarayu,  the  modern  Gogra,  and  the  town  of  Sringavera,  on  the 
northern  bank  of  the  Ganges.  The  reader  may  conjecture  that  the  chariot  wag 
carried  across  in  some  primitive  fashion ;  or  he  may  adopt  the  interpretation  of 
learned  Pundits  that  the  chariot  flew  through  the  air. 


HINDU    INDIA  49 

Aryan  dominion  of  Oude  and  the  non- Aryan  aborigines. 
The  Raja  of  the  Bhils,  named  Guha,  was  most  respectful 
and  attentive  to  the  royal  strangers.  He  entertained  them 
with  much  hospitality  and  provided  them  with  a  boat  for 
crossing  the  Ganges. 

During  this  voyage  across  the  Ganges,  Sita  offered  up 
her  prayers  to  the  goddess  of  the  river,  and  vowed  to  present 
her  with  an  offering  of  wine  and  flesh  whenever  Rama  should 
return  and  take  possession  of  his  kingdom. 

The  exiles  next  proceeded  to  the  city  of  Prayaga,  the 
modern  Allahabad,  at  the  junction  of  the  Ganges  and 
Jumna.1  The  site  is  of  much  importance  in  Hindu  history. 
The  union  of  the  river  deities  rendered  it  a  holy  spot  in  the 
eyes  of  Vedic  worshippers.  At  Prayaga,  Bharadwaja  the 
Brahman  had  already  established  a  hermitage.  Further 
south,  in  the  jungle  of  Dandaka,  were  other  Brahman 
hermitages,  which  will  be  presently  brought  under  review." 

At  Prayaga  the  exiles  were  hospitably  entertained  by 
Bharadwaja.  They  crossed  the  Jumna  on  a  raft,  and  Sita 
offered  up  the  same  prayers  to  the  goddess  of  the  Jumna  as 
she  had  previously  offered  up  to  the  goddess  of  the  Ganges. 
After  they  had  landed  on  the  opposite  bank,  Sita  paid  her 
adorations  to  a  sacred  fig-tree,  walking  humbly  round  the 
tree,  and  propitiating  the  god  with  joined  hands. 

The  exiles  next  proceeded  toward  the  hermitage  of  Val- 
miki  the  sage,  on  the  hill  Chitra-kuta  in  the  country  of 
Bundelkund.  The  spot  was  surrounded  by  the  hermitages 
of  other  Brahmans.  Valmiki  was  celebrated  in  after  years 
as  the  author  of  the  Ramayana,  just  as  Vyasa  was  cele- 
brated as  the  author  of  the  Maha  Bharata.  The  exiles  built 
a  hut  of  wood  and  leaves  near  this  hermitage,  and  sojourned 
there  many  days,  subsisting  on  honey  and  game. 

Meanwhile  the  charioteer  returned  to  the  city  of  Ayodhya, 

1  This  locality  has  already  been  noticed  in  connection  with  the  first  exile  of 
the  Pandavaa,  under  the  name  of  Varanavata. 

2  The  area  of  the  forest  of  Dandaka  is  somewhat  confused.     The  whole 
country  seems  to  have  been  a  jungle  or  wilderness  from  the  Ganges  at  Sringa- 
vera  to  the  remote  south, 

H  OF  1—3 


60  HISTORY   OF    INDIA 

and  delivered  to  the  Maharaja  the  filial  messages  which  had 
been  sent  by  Rama.  That  same  night  the  Maharaja  died  in 
the  chamber  of  Kausalya ;  but  no  one  knew  of  it  outside  the 
chamber,  for  the  Rani  had  fallen  into  a  deep  swoon. 

Next  morning  at  early  dawn  the  palace  life  began  as 
though  the  Maharaja  was  still  sleeping.  The  bards  and 
eulogists  were  chanting  his  praises,  in  order  that  he  might 
waken  to  pleasant  words.  The  Brahmans  sang  their  Vedic 
hymns.  The  servants  began  their  daily  business ;  the  men 
brought  in  jars  of  water,  and  the  handmaidens  were  ready 
with  food  and  flowers.  The  sun  began  to  rise  in  the  heav- 
ens, yet  nothing  was  seen  of  the  Maharaja. 

Suddenly  the  screams  of  women  rang  through  the  morn- 
ing air.  The  Ranis  had  gone  to  the  royal  chamber;  they 
found  that  the  Maharaja  was  a  corpse,  and  that  Kausalya 
had  fallen  into  a  swoon.  Then  the  cry  went  forth  that  the 
Maharaja  was  dead. 

The  Ministers  hastened  to  the  chamber  of  death.  They 
called  together  a  great  council  of  Brahmans  and  chieftains. 
The  Maharaja  was  dead,  and  all  his  sons  were  absent  from 
Ayodhya.  There  was  no  son  present  at  Ayodhya  to  con- 
duct the  funeral  ceremony.  Rama  and  Lakshmana  were 
in  exile;  Bharata  and  Satrughna  were  gone  to  Giri-vraja. 
So  the  body  of  the  Maharaja  was  placed  in  a  bath  of  oil; 
and  swift  messengers  were  sent  to  Giri-vraja  to  bring  back 
Bharata  to  the  city  of  Ayodhya. 

"When  the  messengers  arrived  at  Giri-vraja,  they  would 
not  tell  Bharata  that  his  father  was  dead.  They  said  that  all 
was  well,  but  that  he  must  return  with  all  speed  to  the  city 
of  Ayodhya.  So  Bharata  took  leave  of  his  grandfather,  and 
returned  with  the  messengers,  accompanied  by  his  brother 
Satrughna.  "When  he  heard  at  Ayodhya  that  his  father  was 
dead  he  was  in  sore  distress ;  and  when  he  heard  that  Rama 
had  been  sent  into  exile,  he  declared  that  he  would  not  reign 
in  the  room  of  his  elder  brother  Rama.  He  said  that  when 
the  days  of  mourning  were  over,  he  would  go  into  the  jungle 
and  bring  back  his  brother  Rama. 


HINDU    INDIA  51 

Meanwhile  all  preparations  had  been  made  for  the  burn- 
ing. Bharata  and  his  brother  Satrughna  placed  the  royal 
body  on  a  litter,  and  covered  it  with  garlands,  and  strewed 
it  round  about  with  incense.  All  this  while  they  cried  about 
with  mournful  voices,  "O  Maharaja,  whither  art  thou  gone?" 

The  sad  procession  then  moved  from  the  royal  palace  to 
the  place  of  burning  without  the  city.  The  bards  and  eulo- 
gists marched  in  front,  chanting  the  praises  of  the  dead 
Maharaja,  while  musicians  filled  the  air  with  doleful  strains. 
Next  the  widows  appeared  on  foot,  screaming  and  wailing, 
with  their  long  black  hair  dishevelled  on  their  shoulders. 
Then  came  the  litter  borne  up  by  the  royal  servants;  Bha- 
rata and  Satrughna  holding  on  to  the  back  of  the  litter. 
All  round  the  ensigns  of  royalty  were  carried  as  though  the 
Maharaja  were  still  alive.  The  white  umbrella  was  held 
over  the  body ;  the  jewelled  fans  of  white  hair  were  moved 
to  and  fro  to  sweep  away  the  flies ;  the  sacred  fire  was  car- 
ried constantly  burning.  Other  royal  servants  followed  in 
chariots,  and  scattered  alms  among  the  multitude  as  funeral 
gifts  of  the  Maharaja.1 

In  this  way  the  procession  reached  the  banks  of  the  river 
Sarayu.  The  funeral  pile  of  fragrant  woods  was  already 
prepared.  The  body  of  the  Maharaja  was  placed  upon  the 
pile.  Animals  were  sacrificed  and  placed  round  about  the 
dead  body  together  with  heaps  of  boiled  rice.  Oil  and  clari- 
fied butter  were  poured  upon  the  wood  together  with  incense 
and  perfumes  of  various  kinds.  Then  Bharata  brought  a 
lighted  torch  and  set  the  pile  on  fire.  The  flames  blazed  up 
on  high,  and  consumed  the  dead  body  and  all  the  sacrifices. 
The  widows  shrieked  louder  than  ever ;  and  the  multitude 
lamented  aloud,  "O  Maharaja,  O  sovereign  protector,  why 
hast  thou  departed  and  left  us  helpless  here?" 

"When  the  mourners  had  performed  the  rite  of  fire,  they 
began  to  perform  the  rite  of  water.  Bharata  and  Satrughna 


1  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  none  of  the  widows  of  the  Maharaja  were  burned 
alive  on  the  funeral  pile. 


62  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

bathed  in  the  river  with  all  their  friends ;  they  poured  water 
out  of  the  palms  of  their  hands  to  refresh  the  soul  of  the 
Maharaja.  This  done,  the  mourners  returned  to  the  city 
of  Ayodhya. 

For  ten  days  Bharata  mourned  for  his  father,  lying  upon 
a  mat  of  kusa  grass,  according  to  the  custom  which  still 
prevails  among  the  Hindus.  On  the  tenth  day  he  purified 
himself.  On  the  twelfth  day  he  performed  the  Sraddha,  or 
feast  of  the  dead,  by  offering  funeral  cakes  to  the  soul  of  his 
deceased  father.1  On  the  thirteenth  day,  Bharata  proceeded 
to  the  river  Sarayu,  and  collected  the  relics  of  the  funeral 
pile,  and  threw  them  into  the  sacred  stream. 

On  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  mourning  a  great  council 
of  state  was  held  at  Ayodhya.  The  Raj  was  tendered  to 
Bharata,  according  to  the  will  of  the  dead  Maharaja.  But 
Bharata  refused  to  supplant  his  elder  brother;  he  declared 
that  he  would  journey  through  the  jungle  to  the  hill  Chitra- 
kuta,  and  offer  the  Raj  to  Rama. 

The  march  of  Bharata  from  Ayodhya  to  Chitra-kuta  is 
described  at  length  in  the  Ramayana;  but  it  can  scarcely  be 
regarded  as  historical.*  He  was  accompanied  by  an  army; 
and  it  was  therefore  necessary  to  repair  the  road  from  Ayo- 
dhya to  the  frontier.  The  hills  were  levelled,  and  chasms 
were  filled  with  earth. '  Pavilions  were  set  up  at  the  several 


1  The  Sraddha  is  one  of  the  most  important  ceremonies  among  the  Hindus. 
It  is  performed  by  the  mourner  within  a  certain  period  after  the  death,  or  on 
hearing  of  the  death,  of  a  near  kinsman.  A  Sraddha  is  also  celebrated  every 
month  in  propitiation  of  paternal  ancestors.  Special  Sraddhas  are  likewise  per- 
formed on  great  occasions,  and  notably  at  the  celebration  of  any  marriage  cere- 
mony. The  funeral  cakes  are  eaten  by  cows  or  Brahmans,  or  cast  into  water 
or  fire.  The  ceremony  is  accompanied  by  a  feast  to  the  Brahmans,  which  is 
sometimes  conducted  on  the  most  extensive  and  costly  scale.  See  the  larger 
History  of  India,  vol.  ii.,  Brahmanic  period,  chap.  ix. 

*  Great  stress  is  laid  in  the  Ramayana  on  the  reluctance  of  Bharata  to  accept 
the  throne  of  Ayodhya  at  the  expense  of  his  elder  brother  Rama.  The  reluc- 
tance is  improbable;  it  is  contrary  to  human  nature;  it  may,  however,  have 
been  feigned  to  strengthen  his  claim  to  the  throne  hi  the  absence  of  Rama. 
But  whether  real  or  feigned,  it  has  little  to  do  with  the  progress  of  the  history. 

3  The  preparation  of  a  road  through  the  jungle  for  the  passage  of  an  army 
is  not  infrequent  in  Oriental  life.  It  finds  full  expression  in  the  prophecies  of 
Isaiah:  "Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway 


HINDU    INDIA  53 

halting-places;  and  Bharata  and  his  army  moved  along  the 
route  which  had  already  been  traversed  by  Kama  and  his 
fellow-exiles. 

The  first  station  of  any  note  was  the  frontier  town  of 
Sringavera.  There  Guha,  Raja  of  the  Bhils,  appeared  as 
before  in  the  character  of  a  respectful  neighbor.  At  first 
Guha  was  under  the  impression  that  Bharata  was  about  to 
make  war  on  Rama ;  and  he  made  preparations  for  resisting 
the  advance  of  the  army.  When,  however,  he  heard  that 
Bharata  was  about  to  offer  the  Raj  to  Rama,  he  carried 
large  presents  of  fish,  honey,  and  flesh  to  the  camp,  and  en- 
tertained the  whole  army.  He  also  provided  five  hundred 
boats  to  carry  the  women  and  leading  personages  over  the 
river  Ganges. 

The  passage  of  the  army  of  Bharata  over  the  Ganges  is 
exactly  in  accordance  with  the  ways  of  Hindu  soldiers  and 
their  endless  followers.  The  men  set  their  booths  on  fire  on 
leaving  the  encampment.  They  made  a  great  uproar  dur- 
ing embarkation.  The  boats,  adorned  with  gay  streamers, 
crossed  the  river  with  ease  amid  the  sing-song  of  the  rowers; 
some  were  filled  with  women,  some  carried  horses,  and  oth- 
ers were  filled  with  carriages,  cattle,  and  treasure.  The 
elephants  swam  through  the  waters  like  winged  mountains. 
The  multitude  went  over  on  rafts  or  empty  jars,  or  breasted 
the  stream  with  their  hands  and  arms. 

Next  followed  the  march  to  the  hermitage  of  Bharad- 
waja.  The  holy  Brahman  gave  a  great  feast  to  the  whole 
army.  By  virtue  of  his  many  austerities,  he  prevailed  on 
the  gods  to  supply  all  that  was  necessary  from  the  heaven 
of  Indra.  Viswakarma,  the  architect  of  the  gods,  levelled 
the  ground,  covered  it  with  green  turf,  and  built  up  mag- 
nificent pavilions.  Tanks  were  filled  with  sacred  food — 
milk,  rice,  and  sugar.  Metal  dishes,  loaded  with  cooked 
meats,  were  supplied  in  abundance.  Rivers  flowed  with 

for  our  God.  Every  valley  shall  be  exalted,  and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall 
be  made  low ;  and  the  crooked  shall  be  made  straight,  and  the  rough  places 
plain." 


54  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

wine  and  sweet  liquors ;  the  banks  were  covered  with  sweet- 
meats and  delicacies ;  the  trees  dropped  honey.  The  beau- 
tiful Apsaras,  nymphs  from  Swarga,  danced  on  the  grass; 
the  Kinnaras  filled  the  air  with  their  songs ;  the  Gandharvas 
played  sweet  music.  Thousands  of  beautiful  damsels,  with 
garlands  round  their  necks,  served  up  viands  and  drinks  to 
the  exhilarated  warriors.1 

The  army  of  Bharata  next  crossed  the  river  Jumna  in 
the  same  way  that  it  had  crossed  the  Ganges ;  and  in  due 
course  it  marched  through  the  jungle  of  Dandaka  to  the  hill 
Chitra-kuta.  In  the  first  instance  Bharata  told  Rama  that 
his  father  Dasaratha  was  dead.  Rama  gave  way  to  grief 
and  performed  the  funeral  rites.  He  bathed  in  the  neigh- 
boring river,  and  filled  his  two  joined  palms  with  water. 
He  then  turned  his  face  toward  the  south  quarter,  sacred  to 
Yama,  the  judge  of  the  dead,  and  said,  "O  Maharaja,  may 
this  water  always  quench  your  thirst  in  the  region  of  spir- 
its!" He  afterward  prepared  funeral  cakes,  and  offered 
them  to  the  spirit  of  his  departed  father. 

The  meeting  between  Bharata  and  Rama  is  told  at  great 
length  in  the  Ramayana.  They  discussed  the  question  of 
the  succession  to  the  Raj;  Bharata  offering  it  to  his  elder 
brother,  and  Rama  refusing  to  take  it  until  he  had  com- 
pleted his  exile.  In  the  end  it  was  resolved  that  Bharata 

1  The  miracle  of  Bharadwaja  will  serve  as  a  specimen  of  the  mode  in  which 
the  original  traditions  of  the  Maha  Bharata  and  Ramayana  have  been  embellished 
when  retold  in  the  form  of  Sanskrit  epics.  The  deities  of  fire,  water,  the  winds, 
the  sun  and  moon,  the  gods  of  wealth  and  war,  and  a  host  of  other  deities,  were 
supposed  to  dwell  on  high  hi  the  heaven  of  Indra ;  and  Indra  reigned  as  sover- 
eign of  the  gods,  just  as  Zeus  reigned  as  sovereign  over  the  gods  on  Mount 
Olympus.  But  Brahman  sages,  by  the  force  of  austerities  and  other  religioua 
merits,  could  force  the  gods  to  work  their  will. 

The  dancers,  singers,  and  musicians  call  for  some  explanation.  The  Apsaraa 
were  dancing-girls  in  the  service  of  Indra.  The  Kinnaras  were  a  people  fabled 
to  have  horses'  heads ;  and  Herodotus  describes  a  people,  whom  he  calls  East- 
ern Ethiopians,  who  fought  in  the  army  of  Xerxes,  and  wore  the  scalps  of  horses 
on  their  heads,  with  the  ears  and  mane  attached.  (Herodotus,  vii.  70.)  They 
were  equipped  like  the  Indians.  How  they  came  to  serve  as  singers  in  the  heaven 
of  Indra  is  a  mystery.  The  Gandharvas  were  a  hill  tribe  dwelling  on  the  Hima- 
layas, and  famous  for  the  beauty  of  their  women.  They  appear  in  the  story  of 
the  adventures  of  the  Pandavas  at  Virata,  as  ghostly  lovers  of  women.  In  the 
Ramayana  they  appear  as  musicians  in  the  heaven  of  Indra. 


HINDU    INDIA  55 

should  return  to  Ayodhya,  and  rule  over  the  Raj  in  the 
name  of  Rama;  and  that  when  the  fourteen  years  of  exile 
were  accomplished,  Rama  should  leave  the  jungle  and  take 
possession  of  the  throne. 

After  the  departure  of  Rama,  the  Brahman  hermitages 
at  Chitra-kuta  were  sorely  troubled  by  the  Rakshasas.  These 
people  are  described  as  demons,  monsters,  and  cannibals,  like 
those  encountered  by  Bhima  in  the  Magadha  country.  They 
were  especially  hostile  to  the  Brahmans  and  their  sacrifices, 
and  enemies  to  the  worship  of  the  gods.  Accordingly  the 
Brahmans  abandoned  their  hermitages  at  Chitra-kuta,  and 
went  away  to  another  country. 

When  Chitra-kuta  was  deserted  by  the  Brahmans,  Rama 
went  away  further  south,  accompanied  by  Sita  and  Laksh- 
mana.  The  royal  exiles  wandered  over  the  jungle  of  Dan- 
daka  toward  the  sources  of  the  river  Godavari  in  the  Vin- 
dhya  mountains.  They  visited  the  hermitages  of  many  holy 
Brahmans,  and  Rama  carried  on  war  against  many  Rak- 
shasas. In  this  manner  thirteen  years  of  the  exile  passed 
away. l 

The  Rakshasas  of  the  Ramayana  are  creations  of  Hindu 
imagination.  They  are  not  gigantic  men  like  those  who 
were  slain  by  Bhima,  but  huge  misshapen  monsters.  One 
cannibal,  named  Viradha,  was  tall  as  a  mountain,  with  a 
deep  voice,  hollow  eyes,  a  monstrous  mouth,  and  a  tun  belly ; 
he  was  smeared  with  fat  and  blood ;  before  him,  on  a  huge 
iron  spit  ready  cooked  for  a  meal,  were  three  lions,  four 
tigers,  two  wolves,  ten  deer,  and  the  head  of  an  elephant. 
Another  demon,  named  Kabandha,  was  a  mountain  of  flesh, 
without  head  or  neck ;  his  face  was  in  his  belly ;  he  had  one 
eye  and  huge  teeth ;  he  had  two  arms  of  interminable  length, 


1  One  famous  locality  visited  by  Rama  was  Nasik,  near  the  sources  of  the 
Godavari,  about  ninety  miles  to  the  northeast  of  Bombay.  The  name  may  be 
familiar  to  English  readers,  as  some  years  back  a  distinguished  Indian  official 
recommended  the  transfer  of  the  capital  of  British  India  from  Calcutta  to  Nasik. 
In  the  present  day  Nasik  is  a  holy  place,  a  centre  of  Brahmanism.  But  a  num- 
ber of  Buddhist  ruins  are  in  the  neighborhood,  and  prove  that  Buddhism  once 
flourished  there. 


56  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

with  which  he  swept  up  his  prey.  Of  course  both  Viradha 
and  Kabandha,  as  well  as  other  demons,  were  all  slain  by 
Rama.  Indeed  Rama  is  always  the  victor,  whether  encoun- 
tering a  single  monster,  or  assailed  by  a  whole  army  of 
Rakshasas. 

The  remainder  of  the  Ramayana  may  be  described  as  a 
romance  converted  into  a  religious  parable.  Rama  is  rep- 
resented as  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  born  upon  earth  for 
the  destruction  of  the  Rakshasas,  who  are  the  enemies  of 
gods  and  Brahmans. 

Ravana,  the  Raja  of  the  Rakshasas,  was  reigning  in  the 
island  of  Lanka,  the  modern  Ceylon.  His  empire  extended 
over  the  greater  part  of  southern  India;  his  power  was  felt 
on  the  river  Godavari  and  hill  Chitra-kuta.  He  was  said  to 
have  made  the  gods  his  slaves.  He  had  delivered  his  sub~ 
jects  from  the  fear  of  Yama,  judge  of  the  dead,  and  had 
compelled  Yama  to  cut  grass  for  his  steeds.  The  sun  was 
obliged  to  smile  gently  at  Lanka,  and  the  moon  to  be  always 
at  the  full.  Agni,  the  god  of  fire,  burned  not  in  his  pres- 
ence. Vayu,  the  god  of  wind,  blew  gently  at  Lanka.  No 
one  dared  to  perform  sacrifice  out  of  fear  of  Ravana. l 

Ravana  had  heard  of  the  beauty  of  Sita,  the  wife  of 
Rama.  He  disguised  himself  as  a  Hindu  devotee,  and  paid 
a  visit  to  Sita  while  Rama  and  Lakshmana  were  absent  in 
the  jungle.  He  was  smitten  with  her  charms,  and  forcibly 
carried  her  off  in  a  chariot,  which  flew  through  the  air  like 
chariots  in  fairy  tales.  Rama  was  much  distressed  when 
he  returned  to  the  hut  and  found  that  Sita  had  vanished. 
At  last  he  discovered  that  Sita  had  been  carried  off  by  Ra- 
vana, the  mighty  Raja  of  Lanka.  Accordingly  he  formed 
alliances  for  waging  war  against  so  potent  an  enemy.  He 
is  said  to  have  secured  the  services  of  armies  of  monkeys 
and  bears,  who  had  been  born  on  earth  as  incarnations  of 
the  gods,  in  order  to  help  in  the  holy  war  against  Ravana. 

According  to  the  Ramayana  there  was  a  great  Raja  of 

1  See  larger  History  of  India,  vol.  ii. :  Ramayana. 


HINDU    INDIA  57 

monkeys  reigning  in  the  western  mountains.1  His  name 
was  Bali.  He  had  a  younger  brother,  named  Sugriva, 
whom  he  had  driven  out  of  the  Raj,  and  was  still  anxious 
to  capture  and  murder.  Rama  visited  Sugriva  in  his  secret 
retreat  in  a  hill  fortress,  and  made  a  league  with  him. 
Rama  fought  against  Bali,  slew  him,  and  placed  Sugriva 
on  the  throne.  In  return,  Sugriva  joined  Rama  with  an 
army  of  monkeys  to  carry  on  the  war  against  Ravana.8 

A  famous  monkey,  named  Hanuman,  was  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army  of  monkeys.  The  exploits  of  Hanuman 
have  been  the  delight  of  the  people  of  India  for  unrecorded 
centuries.3  He  could  swell  himself  to  the  size  of  a  moun- 
tain, or  dwarf  himself  to  the  size  of  a  man's  thumb.  He 
was  bent  on  discovering  the  retreat  of  Sita.  He  marched 
to  the  sea-shore,  where  a  strait,  sixty  miles  across,  separates 
India  from  Ceylon.  He  took  a  gigantic  spring  and  leaped 
across  the  strait.  He  climbed  the  vast  fortifications  which 
surrounded  the  city  of  Lanka,  and  entered  the  palace  of 
Ravana.  He  found  Sita  in  the  palace  garden  secluded  in 
a  grove,  and  gave  her  a  ring  he  had  received  from  Rama. 
He  saw  that  Ravana  was  anxious  to  make  Sita  his  chief 
Rani,  but  that  nothing  would  induce  her  to  break  her  mar- 
riage vows.  Sita  was  glad  to  see  Hanuman  and  gave  him 
a  jewel  as  a  token  for  Rama. 

When  Hanuman  left  Sita,  he  was  so  enraged  against 
Ravana  that  he  began  to  tear  up  all  the  trees  and  flowers 
in  the  palace  garden.  The  Rakshasas  fell  upon  him  with 
overwhelming  forces,  but  he  withstood  them  all.  At  last 

1  The  region  corresponded  generally  to  the  Mysore  country,  but  may  have 
extended  over  a  larger  area,  including  the  Mahratta  country.     The  wife  of  the 
monkey  Raja  was  named  Tara,  a  name  which  is  frequently  given  to  Mahratta 
women. 

2  This  strange  legend  illustrates  the  feuds  which  prevailed  in  ancient  India. 
The  confusion  between  monkeys  and  men  is  inexplicable.     The  bears  played  a 
less  important  part  in  the  war,  and  may  be  ignored. 

3  Hanuman  is  worshipped  as  a  god  in  all  parts  of  India.    His  image  is  carved 
in  numerous  pagodas.     Delia  Valle,  who  travelled  in  India  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  describes  a  festival  hi  which  the  image  of  Hanuman  was  carried  in  pro- 
cession from  a  temple  in  the  western  Ghats  to  the  eastern  coast  of  Coromandel, 
the  scene  of  llama's  later  exploits. 


58  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

he  was  entrapped  by  a  noose  which  had  belonged  to  the 
god  Brahma.  He  was  dragged  into  the  palace  hall,  where 
Havana  was  sitting  surrounded  by  his  council.  His  tail 
was  dipped  in  butter  and  set  on  fire;  but  he  whisked  the 
tail  over  the  city  of  Lanka,  and  set  all  the  houses  in  flames.1 
He  then  went  off  to  the  sea-shore,  and  leaped  over  the  strait 
as  before ;  and  told  Kama  that  he  had  seen  Sita  and  gave 
him  the  token. 

The  rest  of  the  Eamayana  is  a  string  of  marvels.  The 
army  of  monkeys  brought  rocks  from  the  Himalaya  moun- 
tains, and  built  a  bridge  over  the  sea  between  India  and 
Lanka. a  The  war  was  carried  on  with  supernatural  weap- 
ons and  mystic  sacrifices.  It  was  diversified  by  single  com- 
bats, like  the  war  of  the  Maha  Bharata ;  but  they  are  devoid 
of  all  human  interest.  They  are  the  combats  of  gods  and 
demons  armed  with  weapons  that  worked  impossible  mar- 
vels. At  last  Havana  was  slain  by  Rama,  and  Sita  was 
restored  to  her  husband's  arms. 

Here  the  story  might  have  been  brought  to  a  close;  but 
Sita  had  been  captured  by  an  enemy,  and  was  yet  to  pass 
through  a  terrible  ordeal.  A  pile  of  wood  was  built  up  and 
set  on  fire.  Sita  invoked  Agni,  the  god  of  fire,  to  testify  to 

1  The  burning  of  Hanuman's  tail  is  a  favorite  scene  in  dramatic  representa- 
tions, and  is  always  hailed  by  a  Hindu  audience  with  a  storm  of  delight.  The 
false  tail  of  the  representative  of  Hanuman  is  of  course  stuffed  with  combusti- 
bles, and  flares  away  with  a  display  of  fireworks,  until  the  flimsy  properties 
which  indicate  the  streets  and  houses  of  Lanka  are  destroyed  by  the  devouring 
flames.  See  larger  History  of  India,  voL  ii.  chap.  xx. :  Ramayana. 

*  The  origin  of  the  conception  of  Rama's  bridge  forms  a  curious  subject  of 
inquiry.  The  famous  bridge  of  boats  by  which  the  army  of  Xerxes  passed  over 
the  Hellespont  is  commonplace  in  comparison  with  a  bridge  of  stone,  sixty  miles 
long,  extending  over  a  deep  sea.  Strangely  enough,  a  rocky  causeway  runs  out 
from  the  Indian  side  of  the  channel,  and  terminates  at  the  island  of  Ramisseram; 
and  although  it  is  at  present  covered  by  the  sea,  it  is  said  to  have  formerly  been 
above  the  waves.  A  similar  causeway  runs  out  from  the  opposite  shore  of  Cey- 
lon, and  terminates  in  the  island  of  Manaar;  while  a  sandy  ridge,  known  as 
Adam's  Bridge,  connects  Manaar  with  Ramisseram.  There  can,  therefore,  be 
"Jttle  doubt  that  the  Hindu  bard  formed  the  idea  of  a  bridge  from  a  contempla- 
tion of  the  physical  geography  of  the  locality ;  and  the  conception  once  formed 
was  readily  believed  and  widely  disseminated.  To  this  day  the  huge  blocks  or 
boulders  which  are  to  be  found  in  various  pans  of  India  are  said  to  have  been 
dropped  by  the  monkeys  in  attempts  to  carry  them  southward  for  the  purpose 
of  building  the  bridge. 


HINDU   INDIA  59 

her  purity.  She  threw  herself  into  the  midst  of  the  flames, 
relying  upon  the  god  to  protect  her.  For  a  while  she  dis- 
appeared from  mortal  eyes.  Presently  the  earth  opened, 
and  Agni  rcse  up,  and  revealed  himself  in  human  form. 
He  carried  Sita  on  his  knee  as  a  father  carries  a  child,  and 
delivered  her  to  Rama  as  pure  as  the  undriven  snow. 

The  fourteenth  year  of  exile  was  now  accomplished. 
Rama  and  Sita  returned  to  Ayodhya,  and  reigned  in  great 
happiness  and  splendor.  Rama  became  a  mighty  conqueror; 
his  empire  is  said  to  have  covered  all  India.  Like  Yudhish- 
thira  he  performed  the  Aswamedha,  or  horse-sacrifice ;  and 
every  Raja  in  India,  if  not  in  all  the  world,  attended  the 
sacrifice  and  paid  homage  to  Rama. 

The  conclusion  of  the  Ramayana  is  a  painful  episode. 
There  was  a  famine  in  the  land;  it  was  said  that  the  gods 
were  angry  with  Rama  for  having  taken  back  Sita.  Rama 
was  in  sore  distress,  for  Sita  was  about  to  become  a  mother; 
nevertheless  he  ordered  his  brother  Lakshmana  to  conduct 
her  to  the  wilderness  of  Dandaka  and  leave  her  alone  in  the 
jungle. 

Lakshmana  was  obliged  to  obey  the  cruel  commands  of 
the  Maharaja.  He  drove  Sita  to  the  hill  Chitra-kuta;  told 
her  that  Valmiki  the  sage  had  returned  to  the  hermitage 
accompanied  by  his  wife;  and  counselled  her  to  seek  for 
refuge  at  the  hermitage.  It  is  needless  to  dwell  on  the 
agony  of  Sita  at  finding  herself  abandoned  by  her  husband. 
It  will  suffice  to  say  that  she  found  her  way  to  the  hermitage, 
and  was  kindly  entertained  by  Valmiki  and  his  wife,  and 
became  the  mother  of  twin  sons,  Lava  and  Kusa. 

Sixteen  years  passed  away.  Valmiki  composed  the  poem 
of  the  Ramayana,  from  the  birth  of  Rama  to  the  triumphant 
return  of  Rama  and  Sita  to  the  Raj  of  Ayodhya.  He  taught 
the  poem  to  the  two  sons  of  Rama. 

At  this  time  it  came  to  pass  that  Rama  made  an  excur- 
sion into  the  jungle  of  Dandaka.  He  heard  Lava  and  Kusa 
chanting  the  Ramayana  at  the  hermitage.  His  heart  yearned 
toward  his  two  sons  and  their  mother  Sita.  He  entered  the 


60  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

hermitage,  and  was  reconciled  by  Valmiki  to  his  wife  Sita. 
Rama  and  Sita  then  returned  to  the  city  of  Ayodhya  with 
their  two  sons,  and  lived  in  happiness  until  death.1 

The  poem  of  the  Ramayana  was  composed  for  a  religious 
purpose  similar  to  that  which  pervades  the  Maha  Bharata. 
Ancient  legends  are  retold  in  the  form  of  religious  parables 
to  represent  Rama  as  an  incarnation  of  the  Supreme  Spirit 
— Vishnu,  in  the  same  way  that  the  Maha  Bharata  represents 
Krishna  as  an  incarnation  of  the  same  deity.  In  the  original 
poem  the  character  of  Rama  is  wildly  distorted,  and  his 
moral  actions  are  exaggerated,  in  order  to  exalt  him  into  a 
Brahmanical  hero  of  a  supernatural  type.8  It  should  also 
be  remarked  that  in  the  Ramayana  two  separate  legends 
appear  to  have  been  linked  into  one.  The  exile  of  Rama 
from  Ayodhya  is  apparently  the  original  tradition  which  has 
been  referred  to  B.C.  1000;  it  is  the  backbone  of  the  epic, 
and  complete  in  itself,  irrespective  of  the  wars  in  the  Dekhan. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  conquest  of  the  Dekhan  and  capture 
of  Lanka  are  additions  of  a  mythical  character,  belonging 
to  a  later  period  of  perhaps  many  centuries.  They  are  relics, 
fantastic  and  grotesque,  of  the  religious  wars  and  antago- 
nisms which  prevailed  for  centuries  in  southern  India  be- 
tween the  Brahmans,  or  worshippers  of  the  gods,  and  the 
Buddhists  and  Jains,  who  denied  the  existence  of  the  gods, 
and  were  denounced  as  atheists  and  Rakshasas.8 


-  The  story  of  the  reconciliation  of  Rama  and  Sita  has  been  slightly  modified 
to  escape  details  which  are  of  no  moment,  and  which  would  only  involve  lengthy 
explanations.  The  correct  version  will  be  found  in  the  larger  History  of  India, 
vol.  ii. 

2  Such  stories  please  Oriental  imaginations,  but  are  repulsive  to  practical 
morality  as  understood  by  Europeans.     Similar  supernatural  myths  are  told  of 
Gotama  Buddha,  such  as  giving  his  own  flesh  to  a  hungry  tiger.     Fables  of  this 
extreme  character  are  more  calculated  to  excite  ridicule  than  to  enforce  moral 
rules. 

3  This  question  is  treated  at  length  in  the  larger  History  of  India,  vol.  ii 
Further  evidence  is  furnished  in  the  second  part  of  vol.  iv.  chap.  viii. 


HINDU   INDIA  61 


CHAPTER   III 
MEDIAEVAL  RAJAS 

B.C.  500  TO  A.D.  1000 

r  I  ^HE  belief  that  there  is  but  one  God,  and  that  the  soul 
is  immortal,  has  done  much  toward  elevating  the 
barbarian  into  a  civilized  and  responsible  being.    But 
there  is  another  belief  that  has  extended  widely  over  the 
eastern  world :  it  is  known  as  the  dogma  of  the  metempsy- 
chosis, or  belief  in  the  transmigrations  of  the  soul. 

Sakya  Muni,1  afterward  known  as  Gotama  Buddha,  was 
the  son  of  a  Raja  of  Kapila,  a  country  seated  on  the  southern 
slopes  of  the  Himalayas.9  Sakya  Muni  was  brought  up  in 
every  luxury,  married  a  loving  wife,  and  was  the  father 
of  a  son.  But  he  was  wearied  or  surfeited  with  pleasure, 
and  felt  a  loathing  for  life.  According  to  the  legend,  he 
saw  an  old  man,  a  diseased  man,  and  a  dead  man ;  and  his 
eyes  were  opened  to  the  woes  of  humanity.  In  the  agony 
of  his  soul  he  is  said  to  have  exclaimed,  "Youth,  health,  and 
life  itself  are  but  transitory  dreams;  they  lead  to  age  and 
disease;  they  end  in  death  and  corruption."  This  feeling 
was  intensified,  and  magnified,  by  the  belief  in  the  transmi- 
grations of  the  soul.  He  saw  the  evils,  not  only  of  an  indi- 
vidual life,  but  of  an  endless  chain  of  successive  existences, 
beginning  in  an  unknown  past  and  running  on  to  eternity. 
Sakya  Muni  next  saw  one  of  those  religious  mendicants 
who  have  abounded  in  India  from  the  remotest  antiquity. 

1  The  era  of  Sakya  Muni  is  still  uncertain  ;  opinions  are  divided  as  to  whether 
he  flourished  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  century  before  the  Christian  era.  Perhaps  B.C. 
500  is  good  as  an  approximate  date. 

3  The  locality  is  somewhere  on  the  frontier  between  Nipal  and  Sikhim,  and 
has  sometimes  been  a  bone  of  contention  between  the  two  powers. 


62  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

The  man  had  no  cares  or  sorrows,  no  wife  or  family,  no 
earthly  ties  of  affection  or  kinship.  He  lived  on  the  daily 
alms  of  food  which  are  given  to  such  mendicants  by  the 
masses.  Sakya  Muni  resolved  to  become  a  religious  men- 
dicant in  like  manner;  to  abandon  his  father's  palace,  his 
wife  and  son,  and  his  expectation  of  a  throne,  and  to  lead 
a  life  cut  off  from  all  the  ties  that  bind  men  to  the  world. 

Sakya  Muni  carried  out  his  resolve.  He  went  from  his 
father's  palace  at  Kapila  to  the  country  of  Magadha  on  the 
southern  bank  of  the  Ganges.  He  carried  his  alms-bowl 
round  the  city  of  Rajagriha.1  He  next  led  a  life  of  solitude 
and  meditation  in  the  jungle  of  Gaya,  where  he  became  a 
Buddha,  or  apostle,  to  deliver  humanity  from  the  miseries 
and  evils  of  existence.  Finally,  he  proceeded  to  the  deer 
forest  near  Benares,  and  began  to  preach  what  he  termed 
the  law. 

The  essence  of  Sakya  Muni's  teaching  was  that  every  one 
should  strive  to  be  good  in  thought,  word,  and  deed;  that 
by  so  doing  he  would  be  born  to  a  better  and  happier  life  in 
the  next  birth.  But  he  taught  that  those  who  were  truly 
wise  would  also  seek  to  attain  a  higher  object,  namely,  the 
deliverance  of  the  soul  from  the  chain  of  transmigrations. 
This  he  maintained  could  only  be  effected  by  leading  the  life 
of  a  religious  mendicant;  by  rooting  out  every  affection, 
passion,  or  desire;  by  severing  every  tie  that  bound  the  soul 
to  the  universe  of  being.  When  that  end  was  accomplished, 
the  soul  would  be  detached  from  all  life  and  being;  it  would 
be  delivered  or  emancipated  from  the  endless  chain  of  trans- 
migrations, and  would  finally  sink  into  an  eternal  sleep  or 
annihilation  known  as  Nirvana. 

Sakya  Muni  appeared  in  a  world  of  Rajas  and  Brahmans, 
not  unlike  that  which  is  depicted  in  the  Sanskrit  epics.  The 
reigning  Maharaja  of  Magdaha  was  at  war  with  the  Maha- 
raja of  Kosala.  Peace  was  made  and  cemented  by  inter- 


1  Rajagriha  is  the  same  as  Giri-vraja,  the  capital  of  Magadha,  the  city  of  the 
father  of  Kaikeyi.     See  ante,  page  43. 


HINDU    INDIA 


64  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

marriages.  The  Maharaja  of  Magadha  was  subsequently 
put  to  death  by  his  own  son,  who  succeeded  to  the  throne 
and  conquered  Kosala.  Sakya  Muni  was  thus  preaching  in 
troubled  times.  His  success  is  proved  by  the  after  history. 
To  this  day  the  whole  region  of  Magadha,  on  the  southern 
bank  of  the  lower  Ganges,  is  known  by  the  name  of  Bihar 
or  Vihara,  the  land  of  Viharas  or  monasteries. 

In  B.C.  327,  a  century  or  more  after  the  preaching  of 
Sakya  Muni  in  Magadha,  Alexander  the  Great  crossed  the 
river  Indus  for  the  invasion  of  the  Punjab,  or  "land  of  the 
five  rivers."  The  Punjab  was  distributed  among  kings  or 
Rajas  who  were  more  or  less  at  war  with  each  other.  After 
crossing  the  Indus  there  were  three  kingdoms  to  be  con- 
quered :  that  of  Taxiles,  between  the  Indus  and  the  Jhelum ; 
that  of  Porus  the  elder,  between  the  Jhelum  and  the  Chenab; 
and  that  of  Porus  the  younger,  between  the  Chenab  and  the 
Ravi.  There  were  also  other  Rajas  to  the  north  and  south. 
Porus  the  elder,  however,  seems  to  have  been  the  ruling 
suzerain,  while  the  others  were  his  refractory  vassals. 

Alexander  called  upon  all  the  Rajas  to  tender  their  sub- 
mission. Many  flocked  to  his  camp  and  paid  their  homage. 
Possibly  they  were  anxious  to  secure  his  help  against  Porus 
the  elder.  Among  others  came  Taxiles,  who  placed  his 
kingdom  at  the  disposal  of  Alexander.  This  opened  the 
way  for  the  advance  of  the  Macedonian  army  to  the  banks 
of  the  Jhelum,  the  frontier  of  the  kingdom  of  Porus  the 
elder. 

The  passage  of  the  Jhelum  or  Hydaspes  is  famous  in  his- 
tory. Porus  was  encamped  on  the  opposite  bank  with  a  large 
force  of  horse  and  foot,  as  well  as  of  chariots  and  elephants. 
Alexander  had  to  cross  the  river,  not  only  in  the  face  of  the 
enemy,  but  exposed  to  the  wind  and  rain  of  the  southwest 
monsoon.  One  dark  and  stormy  night  he  reached  a  small 
island  in  the  river ;  he  and  his  troops  then  waded  through 
the  remainder  of  the  stream  breast  high.  The  Hindu  scouts 
saw  him  coming,  and  ran  off  to  tell  Porus.  A  force  of  horse 
and  chariots  was  sent  to  repel  the  invaders.  The  Hindu 


HINDU    INDIA  65 

chariots  stuck  in  the  wet  clay,  and  were  nearly  all  captured 
by  the  Macedonians.  Alexander  lost  his  horse  Bucephalus, 
but  the  son  of  Porus  was  among  the  slain. 

Porus  moved  the  greater  part  of  his  army  to  retrieve  the 
disaster,  and  took  up  a  position  on  firm  ground.  His  front 
was  formed  by  a  line  of  elephants,  supported  from  behind 
by  masses  of  infantry.  His  two  flanks  were  formed  of  char- 
iots and  horsemen.  Alexander  was  strong  in  cavalry.  He 
did  not  attack  the  elephants,  but  charged  the  two  flanks,  and 
drove  the  Indian  horse  upon  the  elephants.  Porus  tried  in 
vain  to  bring  his  elephants  into  action;  the  unwieldy  ani- 
mals could  not  keep  pace  with  the  Macedonian  horse.  At 
last  the  elephants  turned  tail,  and  trampled  down  the  masses 
of  Indian  infantry.  Porus  was  wounded  and  compelled  to 
fly;  but  afterward  tendered  his  submission,  and  Alexander 
treated  him  as  a  friend. 

The  victory  on  the  Jhelum  was  the  salvation  of  the  Mace- 
donian army.  Had  Alexander  been  defeated,  he  must  have 
retreated  toward  Kabul,  and  his  army  might  have  been  cut 
to  pieces  in  the  Khaibar  pass.  As  it  was  he  resolved  on 
marching  to  the  Ganges,  but  he  provided  for  a  retreat  by 
building  a  flotilla  on  the  Jhelum.  It  was  better  to  float 
down  the  Jhelum  and  Indus,  and  dare  the  danger  of  the 
Indian  Ocean,  than  to  cut  a  way  to  Persia  through  the  hardy 
mountaineers  of  Kabul. 

Alexander  crossed  the  Chenab,  and  entered  the  territory 
of  Porus  the  younger.  This  prince  had  wanted  Alexander 
to  help  him  against  his  uncle  Porus  the  elder.  "When  he 
heard  that  his  uncle  and  Alexander  were  friends,  he  was 
seized  with  a  panic,  and  fled  into  exile.  Accordingly  Alex- 
ander made  over  the  kingdom  to  Porus  the  elder,  and  noth- 
ing more  was  heard  of  Porus  the  younger. 

Alexander  next  crossed  the  Ravi,  but  a  tribe,  known  as 
the  Kathsei,  revolted  in  his  rear.  He  turned  back  and  re- 
duced the  Kathcei  to  obedience  by  the  capture  of  their  capital. 
By  this  time  the  Macedonians  had  grown  weary  of  their 
Punjab  campaign.  Their  spirits  were  broken  by  the  storms 


66  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

of  the  southwest  monsoon.  They  refused  to  advance  to  the 
Ganges,  and  clamored  to  be  led  back  to  Greece.  Alex- 
ander tried  to  reassure  them,  but  his  efforts  were  in  vain. 
He  returned  to  the  Jhelum,  and  embarked  on  board  the  fleet 
with  a  portion  of  his  troops,  while  the  remainder  marched 
along  the  banks  on  either  side. 

During  the  retreat  down  the  Jhelum  and  the  Indus,  the 
Macedonian  army  was  harassed  by  tribes  who  were  encour- 
aged by  the  Brahmans.  Alexander  wreaked  his  vengeance 
by  slaughtering  every  Brahman  that  came  in  his  way.  At 
last  he  reached  the  ocean,  and  beheld,  for  the  first  time,  the 
phenomena  of  the  tides.  He  landed  his  army  near  Karachi, 
and  marched  through  Beluchistan  to  Susa,  while  Nearchos 
conducted  the  fleet  to  the  Persian  Gulf. 

The  Greeks,  who  accompanied  Alexander,  described  the 
Punjab  as  a  flourishing  country.  There  were  numerous 
towns  and  villages,  abundant  harvests,  a  variety  of  fruits 
and  vegetables,  cotton  growing  on  shrubs,  sugar  canes, 
banyan  trees,  alligators,  elephants,  monkeys,  serpents,  scor- 
pions, lizards,  and  ants. 

The  marriage  customs  were  various.  In  some  tribes 
damsels  were  offered  as  marriage  prizes  in  boxing,  wrest- 
ling, running,  and  archery.  In  other  tribes  a  wife  might 
be  bought  with  a  pair  of  kine.  At  Taxila  the  poor  people 
sold  their  daughters  in  the  bazar. 

The  Brahmans  were  called  wise  men  and  philosophers. 
Some  attended  the  Raja  as  counsellors.  Others  practiced 
religious  austerities  by  standing  in  one  position  for  days,  or 
exposing  themselves  to  the  burning  sun.  Others  imparted 
instruction  to  their  disciples.  Others  prognosticated  respect- 
ing rain,  drought,  and  diseases.  But  all  were  held  in  honor, 
and  went  where  they  pleased,  and  took  what  they  pleased 
from  the  shops.  They  wore  no  clothing,  and  affected  to  be 
indifferent  to  pleasure  or  pain.  They  were  known  to  the 
Greeks  as  Gymnoscphists,  or  "naked  philosophers." 

The  Kathsei  chose  the  handsomest  man  to  be  their  king. 
They  reared  no  children  that  were  not  handsome.  Every 


HINDU    INDIA  67 

child  was  publicly  examined  when  it  was  two  months  old. 
and  the  magistrate  decided  whether  it  was  to  live  or  die. 
Marriages  were  made  by  the  mutual  choice  of  the  bride  and 
bridegroom.  The  widows  burned  themselves  alive  with  their 
dead  husbands. 

When  Alexander  left  the  Punjab,  he  appointed,  a  lieu- 
tenant at  Taxila,  named  Philip,  with  a  garrison  of  Hindu 
mercenaries  and  a  bodyguard  of  Macedonians.  Philip  was 
murdered  by  the  mercenaries,  who  in  their  turn  were  nearly 
all  murdered  by  the  Macedonian  bodyguard.  Alexander 
heard  of  the  murder  in  Beluchistan,  and  appointed  Eudemos 
in  the  room  of  Philip,  to  carry  on  the  government  in  con- 
junction with  Taxiles.  Three  years  afterward  news  reached 
India  that  Alexander  was  dead.  Eudemos  murdered  Porus, 
possibly  in  the  hope  of  founding  an  empire  in  the  Punjab ; 
but  he  was  subsequently  driven  out  of  the  country  by  a 
prince,  who  was  known  to  the  Greeks  as  Sandrokottos  and 
to  the  Hindus  as  Chandra-gupta. 

Sandrokottos  was  a  type  of  the  Hindu  princes  of  ancient 
times.  He  was  at  Taxila  when  Alexander  was  there.  He 
was  at  that  time  an  exile;  an  offshoot  of  the  royal  house 
of  Magadha.  He  wanted  Alexander  to  conquer  Magadha, 
which  he  said  was  eleven  days'  journey  from  the  Punjab; 
but  he  offended  the  Macedonian  by  some  impertinence,  and 
was  obliged  to  fly  for  his  life.  Subsequently  he  procured 
the  help  of  banditti,  and  captured  the  city  of  Pali-bothra, 
the  modern  Patna.  He  then  ascended  the  throne  of  Ma- 
gadha, and  drove  the  Greeks  out  of  India.  He  thus 
established  an  empire  which  extended  over  the  Punjab 
and  Hindustan. 

Sandrokottos  is  an  important  personage  in  ancient  Hindu 
history.  He  formed  an  alliance  with  Seleukos,  the  Greek 
sovereign  of  Persia  and  Baktria.  He  married  a  daughter  of 
Seleukos,  and  received  a  Greek  ambassador  at  his  court 
named  Megasthenes.  The  marriage  of  a  Hindu  Maharaja 
with  a  Greek  princess  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  events 
of  the  time.  The  description  which  Megasthenes  wrote  of 


68  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

Patna  and  its  people  comprises  nearly  all  that  is  known 
of  ancient  Hindustan.1 

Megasthenes  says  that  the  ancient  city  of  Pali-bothra 
extended  ten  miles  along  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  two 
miles  inland."  It  was  surrounded  by  wooden  walls,  pierced 
with  holes  through  which  the  archers  shot  their  arrows. 
Megasthenes  describes  the  streets  and  bazars ;  the  elephants, 
chariots,  and  horsemen,  followed  by  large  retinues;  the  sol- 
diers armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  swords,  bucklers,  and 
javelins.  Sometimes  there  were  festival  processions  of  ele- 
phants and  chariots.  Men  in  rich  apparel  carried  vases  and 
drinking-bowls  of  gold  and  silver;  while  others  led  strange 
animals  in  the  procession,  such  as  humpbacked  oxen,  pan- 
thers, lions,  and  various  kinds  of  birds. 

The  people  of  India  were  divided  into  castes,  and  heredi- 
tary trades  and  professions.  The  cultivators  were  servants 
of  the  Maharaja.  The  produce  was  stored  up  every  year  in 
the  royal  granaries ;  some  was  sold  to  the  traders  and  arti- 
sans, while  the  remainder  was  devoted  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  soldiers  and  officials.  The  cultivators  were  a  most 
mild  and  gentle  people.  They  never  resorted  to  the  cities 
or  joined  in  tumults ;  and  they  were  all  exempted  from  mili- 
tary service.  Thus  when  an  army  was  fighting  an  enemy, 
the  husbandmen  were  plowing  and  sowing  close  by  in  the 
utmost  security. 

The  magistrates  in  the  city  of  Pali-bothra  exercised  a 
strict  supervision.  Some  overlooked  the  working  of  arts 
and  manufactures,  to  prevent  negligence ;  others  overlooked 
all  sales  and  exchanges,  to  prevent  cheating.  Some  col- 
lected a  tax  for  the  Maharaja  of  one-tenth  on  the  price  of 
everything  sold.  Others  registered  all  births  and  deaths 


1  See  Ancient  India  as  described  by  Megasthenes  and  Arrian,  translated  into 
English  by  Professor  McCrindle,  Principal  of  the  Government  College  at  Patna. 
London:  Triibner  &  Co. 

9  The  Sanskrit  name  is  Patali-putra.  Some  excavations  made  at  Patna  dur- 
ing the  cold  season  of  1876  revealed  a  low  brick  wall  of  remote  antiquity,  support- 
ing a  stoat  wooden  palisading. 


HINDU   INDIA  69 

in  order  to  tax  the  people.  Others  were  appointed  to  enter- 
tain all  strangers  and  foreigners,  and  reported  all  they  said 
and  did  to  the  Maharaja. 

The  palace  of  Sandrokottos  was  stately  and  secluded. 
No  one  dwelt  within  the  walls  but  the  Maharaja  and  his 
queens ;  even  the  bodyguard  was  posted  at  the  gate.  Some- 
times the  Maharaja  left  the  palace  to  take  command  of  his 
army,  which  numbered  four  hundred  thousand  men.  Some- 
times he  took  his  seat  in  the  court  of  justice,  or  offered  sacri- 
fices to  the  gods.  Sometimes  he  went  into  the  jungle  on  a 
hunting  expedition,  accompanied  by  his  queens;  the  ladies 
rode  in  chariots,  or  on  horses  and  elephants,  surrounded  by 
spearmen  to  keep  off  intruders. 

Some  years  after  the  mission  of  Megasthenes,  another 
Maharaja  was  reigning  over  Magadha,  named  Asoka.1  The 
adventures  of  Asoka  were  very  like  those  of  Sandrokottos. 
He  quarrelled  with  his  father,  and  went  away  to  Rajputana 
and  the  Punjab.  He  returned  to  the  capital  at  the  moment 
of  his  father's  death,  and  massacred  all  his  brethren,  and 
obtained  the  throne.  He  then  became  a  great  conqueror, 
and  established  an  empire  over  Hindustan,  the  Punjab,  and 
Afghanistan. 

Asoka  was  a  man  of  blood.  Apart  from  his  wars  and 
massacres,  he  sacrificed  thousands  of  animals  and  birds  to 
the  gods  of  the  Brahmans.  Afterward  he  changed  his  relig- 
ion and  became  a  follower  of  Buddha.  He  promulgated  a 
religion  of  moral  duty;  and  his  edicts,  sculptured  on  rocks 
and  pillars,  remain  to  this  day  in  all  parts  of  his  empire. 

The  edicts  of  Asoka  taught  the  merits  of  goodness,  virtue, 
loving-kindness,  and  religion,  as  summed  up  in  the  one  word, 
Dharma.  They  taught  that  all  people  should  render  dutiful 
service  to  father  and  mother ;  kindness  and  help  to  kinsfolk, 
neighbors,  and  acquaintance;  filial  veneration  to  spiritual 
pastors;  reverence  and  almsgiving  to  Brahman  priests  and 
Buddhist  monks ;  respect  and  obedience  to  masters ;  frugality 

1  The  capital  of  Asoka  was  also  at  Pali-bothra,  Patali-putra,  or  Patna. 


70  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

and  temperance;  abstinence  from  evil-speaking  and  slander- 
ing ;  kindness  toward  servants  and  dependents ;  and  kindness 
toward  all  living  creatures. 

Asoka  abolished  the  slaughter  of  animals  throughout  his 
dominions,  whether  for  food  or  sacrifice.  He  established 
public  hospitals  for  sick  people,  and  also  for  sick  animals. 
He  appointed  public  teachers  to  instruct  the  people  in  moral 
conduct.  The  memory  of  Asoka  has  died  out  of  India,  but 
his  teachings  bear  fruit  to  this  day ;  for  the  Hindus  are  more 
tender  to  living  creatures  than  any  other  nation,  and  are 
ever  kind  to  kinsfolk  and  neighbors. 

About  the  time  when  Asoka  was  reigning  in  India,  the 
independent  Graeko-Baktrian  kingdom  in  Central  Asia  be- 
came an  empire.  Subsequently,  under  successive  kings,  the 
Grseko-Baktrians  extended  their  supremacy  over  the  Punjab 
and  the  upper  course  of  the  Ganges.  About  a  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  they  were  driven  out  of  Central  Asia  by  the 
Indo-Scythians;  but  they  left  their  mark  in  art  and  religion 
which  remains  to  this  day.  Greek  sculptures  are  found 
amid  the  ruins  of  Buddhist  temples.  Greek  gods  and  Greek 
inscriptions  are  stamped  on  the  coins  of  old  Hindu  Rajas. 

The  history  of  the  Indo-Scythian  kings  is  unknown.  They 
were  doubtless  of  the  class  which  ancient  writers  placed  under 
the  Greek  name  of  Scythian.  They  came  from  the  eastward 
to  the  banks  of  the  Oxus.  Later  on  they  were  pressed  to- 
ward the  east  and  south  by  other  hordes  of  the  same  charac- 
ter. They  swept  in  successive  waves  through  Afghanistan 
and  the  Punjab.  One  branch  appears  to  have  gone  south- 
ward down  the  valley  of  the  Indus ;  another  went  eastward 
down  the  valley  of  the  Ganges.  From  this  time  they  are  no 
longer  spectres  floating  in  an  age  of  darkness,  but  appear 
upon  the  stage  of  history  in  substantive  forms.  Their  feat- 
ures are  revealed  upon  then*  coins.  Their  faces  show  that 
they  were  men  of  bright  intelligence  and  high  resolve.  Their 
annals  have  yet  to  be  discovered,  but  the  process  has  begun. 
Their  names  and  dates  are  either  deciphered,  or  being  de- 
ciphered. Already  it  is  possible  to  tell  something  of  the  part 


HINDU    INDIA  71 

played  by  the  Indo-Scythian  kings  in  the  bygone  history  of 
India. 

The  latest  dynasty  of  the  Indo-Scythian  kings  stands  out 
more  prominently  than  all  the  others.  It  seems  to  have  been 
founded  by  a  sovereign  whose  name  was  Kanishka ;  but  this 
name  appears  on  his  coins  in  the  Greek  form  of  Kanerke. 
He  probably  ascended  the  throne  of  the  Indo-Scythians 
about  B.C.  56  or  57;  or  about  the  time  that  Julius  Csesar 
first  landed  on  the  shores  of  Albion. 

From  the  banks  of  the  Oxus,  Kanishka  brought  the  Per- 
sian worship  of  Mithra  or  the  sun,  which  his  tribe  had  added 
to  their  ancestral  worship  of  fire,  water,  and  the  firmament. 
Even  Syrian  and  Egyptian  gods  are  found  in  the  Pantheon 
of  the  Indo-Scythians.  Their  latest  conquests  brought  them 
into  contact  with  the  mythology  of  Greece  and  India;  also 
with  the  religion  of  Gotama  Buddha.  Kanishka  seems  to 
have  been  a  liberal  patron  of  the  Buddhists.  His  dynasty 
lasted  about  a  century,  and  the  latest  king  bore  a  Hindu 
name. 

Meanwhile,  a  mysterious  people,  known  as  the  Guptas, 
were  making  a  name  and  home  in  India.  The  Hindus  called 
them  Mlechhas,  or  barbarians.  According  to  tradition  they 
were  strangers  in  the  land.  Possibly,  they  were  children  of 
the  Greeks;  immigrants  from  the  old  Grseko-Baktrian  em- 
pire, who  had  half -forgotten  their  Hellenic  instincts  and  be- 
come Hinduized.  They  succeeded  to  the  dynasty  of  Kanishka. 
From  what  follows,  they  appear  to  have  made  common  cause 
with  Hindu  Rajas  against  the  Indo-Scythian  invaders. 

It  has  been  said  that  one  branch  of  the  Indo-Scythians 
moved  down  the  valley  of  the  Indus;  thence  they  passed 
through  the  desert  of  Scinde,  Guzerat,  and  Marwar,  toward 
Ujain  or  Oojein.  The  kingdom  of  Ujain  was  seated  on  the 
tableland  of  Malwa  in  southern  Rajputana.  In  ancient 
times  the  city  of  Ujain  was  a  centre  of  Rajput  sovereignty 
and  Brahmanical  literature ;  and  to  this  day  it  is  haunted  by 
memories  of  Rajput  bards  and  Sanskrit  dramatists. 

History  sheds  but  faint  gleams  of  light  on  this  distracted 


72  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

period.  The  western  Indo-Scythians  from  the  Indus  seem 
to  have  been  men  of  nerve  and  resolution,  who  pushed  on 
toward  Central  India  to  restore  the  failing  fortunes  of  their 
race.  They  were  met  by  a  general  league  of  Hindu  princes. 
The  Guptas  shared  in  the  league ;  possibly  they  led  it.  A 
great  battle  was  fought  at  Kahror,  near  the  eastern  confines 
of  the  great  desert  of  Marwar.  It  was  one  of  the  decisive 
battles  of  the  world;  a  mortal  struggle  between  Indo-Scy- 
thian  invaders  and  long-established  Rajput  sovereignties. 
The  Rajputs  and  Guptas  gained  the  victory.  The  Indo- 
Scythians  were  utterly  defeated;  they  lost  their  place  in 
history.  Future  discoveries  may  bring  to  light  some  further 
details  respecting  the  children  of  the  Indo-Scythian  kings, 
but  at  present  nothing  further  of  them  is  known. 

The  battle  of  Kahror  was  fought  probably  about  A.D.  78. 
It  is  said  that  the  year  78  has  become  known  as  the  Saka  or 
Salivahana  era  in  consequence  of  this  battle.1 

The  further  history  of  the  Guptas  is  nearly  as  obscure. 
They  were  supplanted  by  the  Vallabhi  Rajas  about  A.D.  319. 
The  supposed  children  of  the  Greek  invaders  passed  away, 
after  exercising  dominion,  in  some  shape  or  other,  in  Baktria 
or  in  India,  for  nearly  six  hundred  years. 

The  historians  and  geographers  of  Greece  and  Rome 
tell  but  little  of  ancient  India.  From  the  overthrow  of 
the  Grseko-Baktrian  kingdom  by  the  Indo-Scythians  to  the 
downfall  of  the  Gupta  dynasty,  India  was  nearly  cut  off 
from  the  outer  world.  Greek  and  Roman  writers  discoursed 
about  India;  they  likened  it  to  Egypt,  and  sometimes  even 
confounded  it  with  Egypt,  mixing  up  the  alligators  in  the 
Indus  with  the  crocodiles  in  the  Nile.  Roman  merchants 
brought  back  stories  of  the  Malabar  pirates  on  the  western 
coast,  but  they  had  nothing  to  say  about  Bengal  or  Coro- 


1  There  is  an  earlier  era  known  as  that  of  Vikramaditya.  It  corresponds  to 
B.C.  55  or  56.  The  legends  of  Vikramaditya  and  Salivahana  are  so  mixed  up 
with  fable  as  to  be  unreliable  and  unmeaning.  It  is  said  that  Vikramaditya 
reigned  over  the  whole  world  for  a  thousand  years — a  statement  which  sets  his- 
tory and  chronology  at  defiance. 


HINDU    INDIA  73 

mandel.  Indeed,  there  was  little  in  the  current  of  events 
in  India  to  interest  men  accustomed  to  the  political  life  of 
Greece  and  Italy.  India  was  still  divided  into  a  number 
of  little  kingdoms,  as  it  had  been  in  the  war  of  the  Maha 
Bharata.  Sometimes  congeries  of  kingdoms  were  formed 
into  empires  under  sovereigns  like  the  kings  of  Magadha 
and  Kosala,  of  Andhra  and  Pandya.1  The  story  of  their 
wars  told  of  battles  between  armies  with  lines  of  elephants, 
but  it  taught  nothing  about  the  people.  The  religious  con- 
troversies between  Brahmans  and  Buddhists  were  unheeded 
or  unknown  to  the  philosophers  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

History  never  stands  still.  Ideas  spread  and  seethe  be- 
neath the  surface  of  humanity,  and  their  outbreak  takes  the 
world  by  surprise.  In  the  third  century  before  the  Chris- 
tian era,  Asoka  had  sent  forth  Buddhist  missionaries  to 
preach  the  law  of  Sakya  Muni  in  Upper  Asia.  Orders  of 
Buddhist  monks  were  established  in  China.  Six  or  seven 
centuries  passed  away,  and  then  Chinese  monks  began  to 
appear  in  India.  They  made  pilgrimages  to  the  sacred  spots 
that  were  associated  with  the  lif  e  of  the  Buddhist  apostle : 
Kapila,  his  birthplace;  Rajagriha,  where  he  first  carried  his 
alms-bowl;  the  jungle  of  Gaya,  where  he  became  Buddha; 
and  the  deer  forest  near  Benares,  where  he  first  preached 
the  law. 

About  A.D.  400  a  Chinese  monk,  named  Fah  Hian,  trav- 
elled through  the  Punjab  into  Hindustan.  He  was  pious 
and  humble,  but  zealous  for  the  law.  He  saw  many  Brah- 
mans and  idol  temples,  but  rejoiced  also  to  see  that  Bud- 
dhism was  flourishing.  Buddhist  monks  were  maintained 
at  the  public  expense,  and  foreign  monks  were  hospitably 
entertained  in  the  monasteries. 

Fah  Hian  visited  all  the  sacred  spots,  but  the  main  object 


1  The  empire  of  Andhra  had  a  long  existence ;  it  is  supposed  to  correspond 
with  the  Telinga,  or  Telugu  country.  The  Andhras  are  mentioned  by  name  in 
the  edicts  of  Asoka.  Pandya  has  been  identified  with  Madura,  or  the  Tamil 
country  in  the  remote  south.  The  king  of  Pandya,  or  Pandion,  sent  an  embassy 
to  Augustus  Caesar. 
H  OF  1—4 


74  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

of  his  pilgrimage  was  to  carry  back  revised  copies  of  the 
Buddhist  scriptures  for  the  benefit  of  his  brethren  in  China. 
Accordingly,  he  dwelt  for  three  years  at  Patali-putra,  the 
centre  of  Buddhism ;  he  learned  the  Pali  language  in  which 
the  Buddhist  scriptures  are  written;  and  he  secured  copies 
of  all  the  sacred  books.  He  describes  a  few  features  of 
Buddhist  life ;  the  ruins  of  the  once  famous  palace  of  Asoka ; 
the  religious  processions  of  images  of  Sakya  Muni  and  other 
Buddhist  saints;  and  the  public  hospitals  where  the  destitute, 
the  crippled,  and  the  diseased  were  attended  by  physicians, 
and  supplied  with  food  and  medicines  until  they  were  suffi- 
ciently relieved. 

Two  centuries  afterward,  about  A.D.  629-645,  another 
Chinese  monk  travelled  in  India,  named  Hiouen-Thsang. 
He  was  a  zealous  Buddhist  like  Fah  Hian,  but  he  was  more 
observant  and  more  highly  cultured.  He  describes  the  peo- 
ple of  India  as  easy  and  gentle,  volatile  in  their  manners, 
honest  in  their  dealings,  and  restrained  by  fear  of  punish- 
ment after  death.  The  administration  in  Buddhist  India 
was  very  mild.  There  were  no  capital  punishments.  Most 
offences  were  punished  by  fines;  but  injustice,  lying,  or 
disobedience  to  parents  were  punished  by  mutilation  or 
exile. 

Hiouen-Thsang  did  not  go  to  the  city  of  Indra-prastha, 
but  he  knew  something  of  the  Maha  Bharata.  He  was  told 
that  the  bones  of  the  warriors  that  fell  in  the  great  war  were 
still  lying  on  the  field  of  Kuru-kshetra,  and  that  they  were 
as  big  as  the  bones  of  giants.  He  went  to  the  city  of  Kanouj 
on  the  river  Ganges,  which  at  this  tune  was  the  metropolis 
of  an  empire  that  covered  Hindustan  and  the  Punjab. 

The  empire  of  Kanouj  included  a  number  of  tributary 
Rajas  stretching  from  Kashmir  to  Assam,  and  from  the 
Himalayas  to  the  Nerbudda  river.  The  reigning  emperor 
or  Maharaja  was  named  Siladitya,  and  was  known  as  a 
Maharaja  Adhiraj,  or  "lord  paramount."  He  tried  to  con- 
quer the  Dekhan,  but  failed.  He  was  a  patron  of  Buddhism, 
but  he  also  favored  the  Brahmans,  and  was  tolerant  of  all 


HINDU    INDIA  75 

religions.  Probably  he  sought  to  keep  the  religious  orders 
in  peace  by  showing  a  friendly  countenance  to  all. 

Siladitya  held  a  great  festival  at  Prayaga,  the  modern 
Allahabad,  which  reveals  the  connection  between  the  Maha- 
raja and  the  religious  orders.  This  locality  had  been  re- 
garded as  sacred  from  a  very  remote  period,  because  of  the 
union  of  the  Ganges  and  Jumna.  Under  the  vast  systems 
of  almsgiving  advocated  by  Brahmanism  and  Buddhism, 
Prayaga  had  continued  to  be  regarded  as  holy  ground.  It 
was  called  "the  field  of  happiness";  and  the  merit  of  alms- 
giving was  enhanced  a  thousand-fold  by  the  alms  being  be- 
stowed at  Prayaga. 

Every  five  years  Maharaja  Siladitya  distributed  all  the 
treasures  of  his  empire  as  alms.  Hiouen-Thsang  was  pres- 
ent at  one  of  these  extraordinary  gatherings,  and  describes  it 
at  length.  All  the  Rajas  of  the  empire  were  there,  together 
with  half  a  million  of  people,  and  all  were  feasted  by  the 
Maharaja  for  seventy-five  days.  Meanwhile  the  alms  were 
distributed  without  distinction  of  person  or  religion.  The 
whole  of  the  accumulated  treasures  of  the  empire  were  given 
away  to  Buddhist  monks,  Brahman  priests,  heretical  teach- 
ers, and  mendicants  of  every  grade  and  degree.  The  poor, 
the  lame,  and  the  orphan,  received  alms  in  like  manner. 
The  Maharaja  was  supposed  to  expiate  all  his  sins  by  this 
unlimited  almsgiving.  At  the  close  of  the  festival  Siladitya 
stripped  himself  of  all  the  robes  and  jewels  he  had  worn 
during  the  seventy-five  days,  and  distributed  them  among 
the  multitude.  He  appeared  in  tattered  garments  like  a 
beggar.  "All  my  wealth,"  he  cried,  "has  been  spent  in  the 
field  of  happiness,  and  I  have  gained  an  everlasting  reward : 
I  trust  that  in  all  future  existences  I  may  continue  to  amass 
riches  and  bestow  them  in  alms,  until  I  have  attained  every 
divine  faculty  that  a  creature  can  desire."  * 


1  By  profuse  almsgiving  the  Maharaja  hoped  to  acquire  genius  and  wisdom ; 
but  he  could  not  expect  to  obtain  final  deliverance  or  emancipation  of  his  soul 
from  the  endless  chain  of  transmigrations ;  that  could  only  be  acquired  by  lead- 
ing a  life  of  abstraction  from  all  affections  and  desires.  See  the  next  chapter. 


76  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

Hiouen-Thsang  dwelt  for  a  long  time  in  a  huge  monas- 
tery at  Nalanda,  near  Rajagriha,  where  the  ruins  are  still 
to  be  seen.  The  monastery  was  a  vast  university,  where 
ten  thousand  Buddhist  monks  and  novices  were  lodged  and 
supplied  with  every  necessary.  Towers,  domes,  and  pavil- 
ions stood  amid  a  paradise  of  trees,  gardens,  and  fountains. 
There  were  six  large  ranges  of  buildings,  four  stories  high, 
as  well  as  a  hundred  lecture-rooms.  All  the  inmates  were 
lodged,  boarded,  taught,  and  supplied  with  vestments  with- 
out charge.  They  were  thus  enabled  to  devote  their  whole 
lives  to  the  acquisition  of  learning.  They  studied  the  sacred 
books  of  all  religions.  In  like  manner  they  studied  all  the 
sciences,  especially  arithmetic  and  medicine. 

India  before  the  Muhammadan  conquest  must  thus  have 
resembled  Europe  during  the  Dark  Ages.  The  Hindu  peo- 
ple were  in  the  background ;  ignorant  and  superstitious,  but 
wanting  no  poor-laws,  and  maintaining  their  sick  and  aged 
as  part  of  their  religious  duties.  Rajas  and  chieftains  were 
at  frequent  war.  Principalities  and  powers  sprung  into 
ephemeral  existence  and  then  perished.  Poms  and  Alex- 
ander, Asoka  and  Siladitya,  and  all  the  armies  of  Baktrians, 
Scythians,  and  Guptas,  have  passed  away  like  the  ghosts  of 
the  warriors  of  the  Maha  Bharata  beneath  the  waters  of  the 
Ganges,  without  leaving  a  ripple  on  the  surface  of  humanity. 

All  this  while  a  religious  life  was  illuminating  colleges, 
monasteries,  and  pagodas.  Brahmans  were  rehabilitating 
ancient  superstitions  in  metaphysical  forms.  Buddhists  were 
ignoring  the  existence  of  the  gods,  and  denying  the  efficacy 
of  priests,  sacrifices,  and  prayers.  Religious  books  were 
composed  in  secluded  universities  and  revolutionized  the 
Indian  world.  Cities  and  courts  were  drawn  into  theolog- 
ical controversies.  Hence  arose  quarrels  between  the  old 
religion  and  the  new;  between  Brahmans  and  Buddhists; 
between  the  men  who  worshipped  the  gods  of  the  Hindu 
Pantheon,  and  the  men  who  worshipped  no  gods  whatever, 
beyond  the  goodness  incarnate  in  Gotama  Buddha  and  his 
disciples. 


HINDU    INDIA  77 


CHAPTER   IV 
RELIGION  AND  LITERATURE 

THE  Hindu  people  of  historical  times  are  divided  into 
four  great  castes:  namely,  Brahmans  or  priests; 
Kshatriyas  or  soldiers;  Vaisyas  or  merchants;1  and 
Sudras  or  cultivators.  But  there  is  a  remarkable  distinc- 
tion between  the  three  first  castes  and  the  Sudras,  which  is 
recognized  throughout  the  whole  of  India.  The  Brahmans, 
Kshatriyas  and  Vaisyas  are  known  as  the  "twice-born," 
because  they  are  invested  at  an  early  age  with  a  mysterious 
thread,  which  marks  their  entrance  into  civil  life.  The  Su- 
dras have  no  such  thread,  and  consequently  are  separated 
from  the  "twice-born"  as  an  inferior  race.  It  may  there- 
fore be  inferred  that  the  three  first  castes,  or  "wearers  of 
the  thread,"  are  descendants  of  the  Aryan  invaders  of  India, 
who  conquered  the  Punjab  and  Hindustan  in  a  remote  an- 
tiquity. The  Sudras,  on  the  other  hand,  who  are  not  "wear- 
ers of  the  thread,"  maybe  descendants  of  the  non- Aryan, 
or  so-called  Turanian  race,  who  were  the  dominant  people 
in  India  at  the  time  of  the  Aryan  invasion,  and  were  sub- 
sequently treated  as  a  conquered  and  servile  population. 

Besides  the  four  castes,  there  is  a  large  population  known 
as  Pariahs  or  outcasts.  They  are  altogether  inferior  to  the 
Sudras,  and  were  probably  the  Helots  of  India  when  the 
Sudras  were  masters.  They  include  menial  servants  of 
various  grades  and  artisans  of  all  descriptions;  and  are 


1  The  Vaisyas  correspond  to  the  Banians,  so  often  mentioned  by  old  English 
travellers  in  "Western  India.  The  Bunniahs  of  Bengal  are  of  the  same  caste, 
but  from  some  unknown  cause  they  have  ceased  to  wear  the  thread  of  the 
"twice-born." 


78  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

divided  in  their  turn  into  numerous  other  so-called  castes, 
according  to  their  hereditary  trades  or  occupations.  These 
Pariahs  call  themselves  Hindus,  and  make  up  the  lower 
strata  of  the  Hindu  social  system. 

In  all  parts  of  India,  however,  there  are  certain  barbar- 
ous tribes,  who  are  altogether  outside  the  pale  of  Hindu 
civilization.  They  are  primitive  communities,  the  so-called 
aborigines  of  India,  who  were  driven  by  the  conquerors  out 
of  the  culturable  plains  into  the  hills  and  jungles,  and  have 
never  as  yet  been  Brahmanized  into  castes  or  otherwise 
absorbed  into  the  Hindu  social  system.  The  Bhils  and 
Nagas  mentioned  in  the  Maha  Bharata  are  existing  types 
of  the  so-called  aboriginal  races.  To  these  may  be  added 
the  Mhairs  and  Minas  of  Rajputana;  the  Kols,  Ghonds,  and 
Khonds  of  the  Dekhan;  the  Kalars  of  the  Peninsula,  and  a 
host  of  other  tribes  under  a  variety  of  names. 

The  bulk  of  these  hill  and  jungle  tribes  are  probably 
Turanians,  without  any  political  organization,  excepting  of 
the  patriarchal  type.  Others,  however,  are  distinctly  Aryan, 
with  a  rude  town-hall  in  the  centre  of  a  village,  and  crude 
remains  of  a  feudal  system.  These  last  are  probably  relics 
of  the  Aryan  invaders,  who  had  either  penetrated  into  remote 
regions  beyond  the  van  of  Aryan  civilization ;  or  had  lagged 
behind  in  the  hills  and  jungles  as  worn-out  invalids  or  crip- 
ples who  had  dropped  off  from  the  rear  of  the  conquering 
army. 

The  religious  ideas  of  Turanians  and  Aryans  have  been 
so  closely  interwoven  in  the  course  of  ages  that  it  is  perhaps 
impossible  to  treat  them  as  race  distinctions.  It  may,  how- 
ever, be  broadly  stated  that  the  religion  and  literature  of  the 
Turanians  were  derived  from  the  mysteries  of  death  and 
birth,  of  which  Siva  or  Mahadeva,  and  his  wife  Kali  or 
Durga,  were  originally  personifications.  The  Turanians  of 
India  also  worshipped  certain  wrathful  or  avenging  deities, 
such  as  the  goddesses  of  cholera  and  smallpox,  and  the  angry 
ghosts  of  men  or  women  who  had  died  violent  deaths.  The 
religious  ceremonial  was  made  up  of  bloody  sacrifices,  orgi- 


HINDU    INDIA  79 

astic  dances,  and  deafening  music.  Other  strange  rites  were 
enjoined  in  a  mystic  literature  known  as  the  Tantras;  but 
these  have  died  out  together  with  human  sacrifices,  self- 
immolation,  and  other  abominations.  A  few  revolting  forms 
of  worship  and  propitiation  may  still  linger  in  secluded  local- 
ities; but  the  sacrifice  of  goats  to  the  goddess  Kali  is,  per- 
haps, one  of  the  last  relics  of  the  old  Turanian  religion  which 
is  still  practiced  by  the  civilized  caste  people  of  India. 

The  religion  and  literature  of  the  Aryans  were  associated 
with  the  worship  of  genii  or  spirits,  which  were  supposed  to 
dwell  in  all  material  forms  as  well  as  in  the  outward  mani- 
festations of  nature.  The  Aryan  people  worshipped  the 
genii  of  swords  and  plowshares;  of  trees,  hills,  fountains, 
and  rivers ;  of  the  sun,  the  firmament,  the  rain  and  the  winds. 
They  also  worshipped  the  manes  of  departed  heroes  and  an- 
cestors ;  and  the  titular  deity  or  guardian  spirit  of  a  town- 
ship, village,  tribe,  family,  or  household.  These  spiritual 
existences  were  often  personified  as  gods  and  goddesses, 
and  shapened  into  idols.  Civilized  Hindus  propitiate  these 
deities  with  offerings  of  boiled  rice,  milk,  sugar,  and  butter; 
and  sometimes  with  meat  and  wine.  Hill  tribes  offer  up 
delicacies  of  then*  own,  such  as  fowls  and  pigs,  and  a  strong 
fermented  liquor  resembling  beer.  In  return  both  classes 
of  worshippers  hope  to  be  rewarded  with  brimming  harvests, 
prolific  cattle,  health,  wealth,  long  life,  and  other  temporal 
blessings. 

The  earliest  religious  utterances  which  have  been  pre- 
served in  Aryan  literature  are  known  as  the  Vaidik  hymns. 
They  are  songs  or  invocations  addressed  to  different  Aryan 
deities  in  the  language  of  praise  and  prayer.  These  hymns 
are  not  the  outcome  of  a  single  generation,  but  the  growth 
of  centuries.  The  earlier  hymns  were  the  ejaculations  of  a 
childlike  people.  The  worshippers  praised  each  god  in  turn 
as  if  he  had  been  a  great  sovereign ;  and  then  implored  him 
for  material  blessings,  in  the  simple  language  in  which  chil- 
dren might  be  expected  to  entreat  a  patriarch  or  father. 
The  later  hymns  were  of  higher  and  more  thoughtful  im- 


80  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

port.  The  ideas  of  children  or  savages  were  expressed  in  the 
language  of  sages  and  divines.  The  original  invocations 
were  interlarded  with  poetical  feelings  and  imagery  which 
belonged  to  a  more  advanced  civilization,  and  with  spiritual 
and  moral  sentiments  which  were  the  outcome  of  later  Brah- 
manical  teaching. 

Fire  was  personified  as  Agni,  the  god  who  cooked  the 
food,  warmed  the  dwelling,  and  frightened  away  beasts  of 
prey.  Agni  thus  became  the  divinity  of  the  homestead, 
whose  presence  was  as  dear  as  that  of  a  wife  or  mother. 
Agni  was  also  the  sacrificial  flame,  the  divine  messenger, 
who  licked  up  the  sacrifice  and  carried  it  to  the  gods.  Water 
was  personified  as  Varuna,  the  god  of  the  sea;  and  Varuna 
was  gradually  invested  with  divine  attributes  as  a  deity 
powerful  to  destroy,  but  mighty  to  save;  who  engulfed  the 
wicked  man  in  the  drowning  depths,  or  mercifully  bore 
the  repentant  sinner  over  the  surging  billows  in  safety  to  the 
shore.  The  wind  and  breezes  were  personified  as  Vayu  and 
the  Maruts.  Vayu  roared  among  the  trees;  while  the  Ma- 
ruts  blew  up  the  clouds  for  showers.  The  firmament  was 
personified  as  Indra,  and  the  Maruts  were  his  followers. 
He  was  king  of  the  Vaidik  gods ;  he  struck  the  sky  with 
his  thunderbolt,  pierced  the  black  clouds  with  his  spear  and 
brought  down  the  earth-refreshing  showers.  He  went  forth 
to  battle  riding  on  his  elephant,  attended  by  the  Maruts 
bearing  their  lances  on  their  shoulders  in  the  forms  of  youth- 
ful warriors.  He  was  the  national  deity  of  the  Aryan  in- 
vaders; who  slew  his  enemies  by  thousands  and  destroyed 
their  cities  by  hundreds;  who  brought  back  the  spoil  and 
recovered  the  cows  that  were  carried  away.  He  was  the 
sovereign  of  the  gods,  enthroned  in  his  heaven  of  Swarga 
on  the  Himalayas,  like  Zeus  among  the  deities  of  Olympus.1 

Surya,  or  the  sun  god,  the  Persian  Mithra,  was  originally 
the  deity  who  journeyed  through  the  sky  and  measured  the 

1  Professor  Max  Miiller's  editions  of  the  text  to  the  Rik  Vaidha,  and  his  elo- 
quent translations  of  the  Vaidik  hymns  into  English,  have  opened  up  new  fields 
of  religious  thought  and  philosophical  research  to  English  readers. 


HINDU    INDIA  81 

days  and  nights,  but  he  was  eventually  invested  with  attri- 
butes still  more  divine  than  those  of  Indra.  Indeed  the  wor- 
ship of  the  supreme  all-seeing  orb  of  day  was  always  more 
spiritual  than  that  of  Indra,  and  at  a  later  period  superseded 
it.  He  was  personified  as  the  ideal  of  manly  beauty;  the 
deity  of  light,  the  Hindu  Apollo.  He  was  also  represented 
in  myth  and  legend,  as  the  remote  ancestor  of  the  solar  race 
of  Rajputs,  who  to  this  day  are  known  as  the  children  of  the 
sun.  In  later  Vaidik  literature  he  was  elevated  to  the  god- 
head as  the  creator  of  the  universe,  and  the  divine  soul  that 
illuminated  the  universe.  Eventually  the  worship  of  the 
sun  developed  into  that  of  Vishnu,  the  Supreme  Spirit, 
whose  incarnations  as  Krishna  and  Rama  were  glorified  in 
the  Maha  Bharata  and  Ramayana. 

The  Vaidik  hymns  contain  no  distinct  reference  to  a 
future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments;  but  there  are 
numerous  allusions  to  a  judge  of  the  dead,  who  is  personi- 
fied as  the  god  Yama,  and  who  consequently  may  be  re- 
garded as  presiding  over  the  entrance  to  a  world  of  departed 
souls. 

The  Vaidik  Aryan  was  thus  constantly  surrounded  by 
the  unseen  gods  of  a  visible  universe ;  and  his  daily  life  and 
conduct  were  more  or  less  influenced  by  the  presence  of  such 
deities.  In  one  Sanskrit  drama  a  wicked  prince  endeavors 
to  persuade  a  parasite  to  commit  murder,  by  assuring  him 
that  there  was  no  one  to  witness  the  act.  The  parasite 
replies  in  indignant  language: 

"All  nature  would  behold  the  crime, 
The  genii  of  the  grove,  the  sun,  the  moon, 
The  winds,  the  vault  of  heaven,  the  firm-set  earth, 
Yama,  the  mighty  judge  of  all  who  die, 
Aye,  and  the  inner  conscience  of  the  soul."  l 

In  addition  to  the  Vaidik  gods  above  mentioned,  there 
are  a  host  of  minor  personifications  in  the  Vaidik  Pantheon, 

1  The  Toy-cart,  by  Raja  Sudraka,  translated  by  H.  H.  Wilson  in  the  Theatre 
of  the  Hindus.  The  passage  has  been  slightly  modified,  and  is  remarkable  &a 
showing  how  the  law  of  merits  and  demerits  blended  with  the  old  nature-worship 
of  the  Vaidik  hymns. 


82  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

such  as  earth,  day,  night,  the  four  seasons,  the  gods  of  the 
air,  the  gods  of  the  brooks  and  streams,  and  many  others, 
all  of  whom  are  clothed  in  forms  at  once  human  and  divine. 
Thus  Ushas,  the  dawn,  the  Eos  of  the  Greeks,  is  imaged  as 
a  white-robed  maiden,  awakening  a  sleeping  world  as  a 
mother  awakens  her  children,  to  kindle  the  morning  sacri- 
fice, and  invoke  the  gods  with  praise  and  prayer. 

In  Vaidik  literature  all  the  more  prominent  gods  are  ex- 
tolled in  turn  as  the  Supreme  Being;  but  in  the  modern  belief 
of  the  Hindus  three  different  deities  stand  out  as  representa- 
tives of  the  One  God,  under  the  names  of  Brahma,  Vishnu, 
and  Siva.  Each  of  these  gods  is  worshipped  in  different 
localities  as  the  creator  and  ruler  of  the  universe,  the  Divine 
Spirit  who  is  above  all  and  in  all.  One  important  sect  of 
Hindus  worships  Brahma  as  the  creator,  Vishnu  as  the  pre- 
server, and  Siva  as  the  destroyer  of  the  universe;  but  more 
frequently  all  these  attributes  of  creation,  preservation,  and 
dissolution  are  assigned  to  one  Supreme  Being,  who  perme- 
ates the  universe  and  is  the  universe;  and  all  the  endless 
emblems,  incarnations,  and  idols  are  reverenced  as  so  many 
vehicles  through  which  the  Supreme  Spirit  receives  the 
adorations  and  offerings  of  his  worshippers. 

There  are  other  and  popular  deities  among  the  Hindus, 
which  cannot  be  referred  distinctly  to  an  Aryan  or  a  Tura- 
nian origin.  Their  worship  has  been  rooted  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people  of  India  from  a  remote  antiquity;  and  has 
become  associated  with  that  of  Aryan  and  Turanian  gods 
by  numberless  supernatural  myths  and  fables.  Foremost 
among  these  is  Ganesh,  the  god  of  good  luck ;  Lakshmi,  the 
goddess  of  prosperity;  Saraswati,  the  goddess  of  learning; 
Kuvera,  the  god  of  wealth;  Kama,  the  god  of  love;  and 
Kartakeia,  the  god  of  war. 

The  propitiation  of  the  more  important  of  these  deities 
is  so  much  a  matter  of  everyday  life  with  the  Hindus  as  to 
appear  like  a  national  instinct.  No  Hindu  will  undertake 
a  journey,  nor  engage  in  any  business  or  transaction,  with- 
out a  visit  to  the  temple  of  Ganesh.  No  Hindu  will  begin  a 


HINDU   INDIA  83 

literary  composition  without  an  invocation  to  Ganesh.  The 
idol  meets  the  eye  all  over  India,  with  the  head  of  an  ele- 
phant and  the  prominent  stomach  of  a  Chinese  deity;  but 
while  he  is  represented  in  Brahmanical  myths  as  a  son  of 
Siva  and  Durga,  the  real  origin  of  his  worship  continues  to 
be  a  mystery.  Lakshmi,  the  goddess  of  pro  ^perity,  is  pro- 
pitiated in  like  manner  on  every  possible  occasion.  She  is 
represented  in  Brahmanical  myths  as  the  goddess  of  beauty, 
who  rose  out  of  the  foam  of  the  ocean,  like  a  Hindu  Aphro- 
dite, to  become  the  bride  of  Vishnu.  Saraswati,  the  goddess 
of  learning,  was  originally  the  divinity  or  spirit  of  the  river 
Indus;1  but  was  converted  into  the  mythical  wife  of  Brahma, 
and  as  such  appears  as  the  goddess  of  literature  and  science 
of  every  kind.  Kuvera,  Kama,  and  Kartakeia,  are  appar- 
ently the  outcome  of  astrological  ideas,  and  may  possibly 
be  the  personification  and  deification  of  supposed  planetary 
influences. 

Besides  the  foregoing,  the  serpent,  the  bull,  and  the  cow 
are  worshipped  all  over  India.  They  are  apparently  the  in- 
carnations of  mysterious  deities  associated  with  ideas  of  sex. 
The  serpent  is  propitiated  with  bread  and  milk  as  the  guar- 
dian of  the  household.  The  bull  is  a  masculine  deity  asso- 
ciated with  the  worship  of  Siva  or  Mahadeva.  The  cow 
is  a  feminine  divinity,  and  is  worshipped  and  reverenced  by 
all  Hindus,  as  the  universal  mother,  the  personification  of 
earth,  the  incarnation  of  the  goddess  Lakshmi. 

The  rise  of  the  Brahmans  is  as  obscure  as  that  of  the 
Druids.  They  appeared  among  the  people  of  India — Aryans 
and  Turanians,  barbarous  and  civilized — as  priests,  divines, 
and  holy  men.  They  ingratiated  themselves  with  Rajas  and 
warriors  by  worshipping  the  old  gods,  but  after  new  and  mys- 
tic forms ;  interpreting  the  present  and  the  future  by  the 
bubbling  of  the  boiling  milk  and  rice  in  the  daily  sacrifices, 
the  marks  on  sacrificial  victims,  or  the  manifestations  of  the 
sacrificial  smoke  and  flame.  They  pronounced  the  lower 

1  The  river  Indus  is  often  invoked  as  the  goddess  Saraswati  in  the  Vaidik 
hymns. 


84  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

gods  of  the  aboriginal  races  to  be  incarnations  or  avatars 
of  the  great  gods  of  the  conquerors ;  and  they  associated  the 
higher  gods  of  the  aboriginal  races  with  new  and  more  spirit- 
ual teachings,  and  raised  them  to  the  highest  rank  of  deity. 
Thus  even  Siva  or  Mahadeva,  the  god  of  death,  was  resolved 
into  a  Supreme  Being;  and  Kali,  the  black  goddess,  who 
revelled  in  intoxication  and  slaughter,  was  worshipped  as  a 
divine  mother,  under  the  names  of  Parvati  and  Durga. 

The  growth  of  the  Brahmans  in  power  and  influence  is 
one  of  the  most  important  elements  in  Indian  history.  Every 
Raja  or  great  man  had  his  own  Brahman  priest,  preceptor, 
or  purohita.  So  had  every  family,  or  group  of  families,  or 
village  community.  But  priests  and  laymen  were  subject 
to  inquisitorial  forms  of  Brahmanical  government,  of  which 
traces  are  still  to  be  found  in  all  directions.  Religious  teach- 
ers of  a  superior  order,  known  as  Gurus,  undertook  regular 
ecclesiastical  tours,  confirming  neophytes,  and  excommuni- 
cating heretics  and  caste  offenders.  Above  all  there  were 
Brahmans  of  still  higher  sanctity,  who  were  worshipped  as 
gods  under  the  name  of  Naths  and  Swamis,  and  exercised 
a  vast  spiritual  authority  over  courts  and  Rajas,  while  ex- 
tending secret  ramifications  to  remote  quarters  of  India. 
Meanwhile  religious  centres  were  established  at  convenient 
spots  in  the  shape  of  temples,  colleges,  and  places  of  pilgrim- 
age; and  Brahmanical  hermitages  were  set  up  in  the  coun- 
tries inhabited  by  aboriginal  races  outside  the  Aryan  pale. 
Thus  in  the  course  of  ages,  the  Brahmans  have  spread  abroad 
a  religious  faith  and  worship,  which,  notwithstanding  the 
number  and  variety  of  divinities,  are  essentially  the  same 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  India. 

A  further  development  of  the  religious  teaching  of  the 
Hindus  is  to  be  found  in  the  Brahmanical  code,  known  as 
the  laws  of  Manu.  The  life  of  Manu  is  unknown ;  he  has 
no  personality  whatever;  he  is  a  mythical  being,  a  reputed 
son  of  Brahma,  and  lord  of  all  living  creatures.  But  the 
sacred  character  of  the  code  of  Manu  is  acknowledged  and 
reverenced  throughout  India. 


HINDU   INDIA  85 

Manu  taught  the  belief  in  the  endless  transmigrations  of 
the  soul ;  that  the  soul  of  every  individual  being,  whether 
of  man  or  of  animal,  passed  at  every  successive  death  into 
a  newly  born  body;  rising  or  falling  in  the  scale  of  being  at 
every  successive  birth  according  to  the  sum  of  its  merits  or 
demerits  in  all  past  lives.  Thus  the  belief  in  a  future  state 
of  rewards  and  punishments  was  associated  by  Manu  with 
a  chain  of  existences  without  beginning  or  ending ;  running 
up  and  down  the  scale  of  animal  being  from  the  meanest 
vermin  to  the  highest  order  of  intellectual  man.1 

The  code  of  Manu  itself  was  the  source  of  all  merits  and 
demerits.  It  demanded  the  observance  of  caste  laws,  the 
worship  of  the  gods,  and  the  offerings  of  cakes  and  water 
to  departed  ancestors.  Obedience  to  its  enactments  consti- 
tuted the  only  merits  which  were  rewarded  in  future  lives ; 
and  disobedience  constituted  the  only  demerits  which  were 
punished  by  future  pains  and  miseries.  Rajasuyas  and  As- 
wamedhas  were  treated  as  arch  merits,  and  converted  into 
sacrifices  for  the  atonement  of  sin. 

The  religion  of  the  Brahmans  also  recognized  the  exist- 
ence of  different  heavens  and  hells.  Thus  the  souls  of  war- 
riors who  died  in  battle  went  to  the  heaven  of  Indra;  while 
the  spirits  of  departed  ancestors  went  to  a  world  of  shades 
where  they  could  only  be  consoled  by  the  cakes  and  water 
offered  in  the  Sraddhas.  But  this  spirit  life  in  heaven  or 
hell  only  lasted  for  a  limited  period,  until  merits  had  been 
sufficiently  rewarded  and  demerits  sufficiently  punished.  At 
the  expiration  of  the  appointed  term  the  soul  returned  to 
earth  and  re-entered  on  a  fresh  course  of  successive  exist- 
ences in  the  endless  chain  of  transmigrations. 

"While  the  code  of  Manu  enforced  the  worship  of  the  gods, 
it  further  developed  those  conceptions  of  the  Supreme  Spirit 
which  find  expression  in  the  Vaidik  hymns.  "All  gods," 
says  Manu,  "are  in  the  divine  spirit,  all  worlds  are  in  the 
divine  spirit;  and  the  divine  spirit  produces  the  connected 

1  It  is  a  question  whether  vegetable  life  was  not  also  included  in  the  trans- 
migrations of  the  soul. 


86  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

series  of  acts  which  are  performed  by  embodied  souls.  Him 
some  adore  as  present  in  the  element  of  fire ;  others  as  pres- 
ent in  Manu  lord  of  creatures;  some  as  present  in  Indra; 
others  as  present  in  pure  ether ;  and  others  as  present  in  the 
most  high  Eternal  Spirit.  It  is  He  who,  pervading  all  be- 
ings in  five  elementary  forms,  causes  them  by  the  gradations 
of  birth,  growth,  and  dissolution  to  revolve  in  this  world  like 
the  wheels  of  a  car." 

But  Manu  pointed  out  that  there  was  a  way  of  deliver- 
ance or  emancipation  of  the  soul  from  the  endless  chain  of 
transmigrations,  whether  on  earth  or  in  heaven  or  hell.  He 
taught  that  a  term  of  austerities  would  quench  the  fires  of 
affection,  passion,  and  desire,  and  break  every  tie  which 
bound  the  soul  to  the  universe  of  being.  The  soul  would 
then  enter  upon  a  term  of  pure  contemplation,  during  which 
it  would  behold  the  Supreme  Soul  present  in  all  things,  and 
would  finally  be  absorbed  in  the  Divine  Spirit.1 

Manu  thus  fashioned  out  a  universe  of  being,  driven  by 
an  artificial  law  of  merits  and  demerits  along  a  chain  of  end- 
less transmigrations.  He  also  showed  how  the  individual 
soul  might  be  delivered  or  emancipated  from  this  chain  of 
existences,  and  become  absorbed  in  the  Divine  Essence.  He 
next  mapped  out  the  life  of  man  into  the  four  terms  of  stu- 
dent, householder,  hermit,  and  devotee,  with  the  view  of 
enabling  each  individual  to  work  out  his  own  deliverance 
or  emancipation.  As  a  student  each  individual  of  the  twice- 
born  castes  would  learn  the  divine  law;  as  a  householder 
he  would  marry  a  wife  and  collect  merits  as  a  husband  and 
a  father ;  as  a  hermit  he  would  perform  religious  austerities ; 
and  as  a  devotee  he  would  contemplate  the  Supreme  Soul 
until  his  own  soul  was  absorbed  in  the  Divine  Spirit.  The 
duties  which  each  individual  must  fulfil  within  the  four 
terms  are  duly  set  forth  in  the  code  of  Manu,  and  still  make 
up  the  ideal  of  the  Hindu. 

1  "The  man  who  perceives  in  his  own  soul  the  Supreme  Soul  present  in  all 
creatures,  and  regards  them  all  with  equal  benevolence,  will  be  absorbed  at  last 
in  the  highest  Essence,  even  of  that  of  the  Almighty  Himself." — Manu,  xii.  126. 


HINDU    INDIA  87 

Buddhism  was  practically  a  revolt  against  the  Brahman- 
ical  system  of  Manu.  It  ignored  the  existence  of  deity ;  de- 
nied the  efficacy  of  prayers  and  sacrifices;  broke  up  the 
bondage  of  caste;  and  declared  that  goodness  and  loving- 
kindness  were  the  only  merits  by  which  the  soul  could  rise 
in  successive  transmigrations.  It  laid  down  five  great  com- 
mandments against  the  five  deadly  sins  of  murder,  theft, 
adultery,  drunkenness,  and  falsehood;  and  it  taught  that 
the  slightest  infringement  of  any  one  of  these  command- 
ments, in  thought,  word,  or  deed,  constituted  a  demerit 
which  would  detract  from  the  happiness  of  the  soul  in  a 
future  state  of  being. 

But  as  regards  the  deliverance  or  emancipation  of  the 
soul,  the  teaching  of  Gotama  Buddha  coincided,  with  one 
important  exception,  to  that  of  Manu.  Gotama  Buddha 
taught  that  a  life  of  goodness  and  divine  contemplation 
would  quench  the  fires  of  affection,  passion,  and  desire, 
which  bound  the  soul  to  the  universe  of  being.  But  he  de- 
nied the  existence  of  a  Divine  Spirit,  and  was  thus  driven 
to  accept  the  dogma  of  annihilation.  Consequently  he 
taught  that  when  the  soul  was  delivered  from  the  chain  of 
existences,  it  sank  into  the  eternal  sleep  or  annihilation 
known  as  Nirvana. 

Modern  Brahmanism,  as  expounded  in  the  Maha  Bharata 
and  Ramayana,  introduced  a  new  element  in  religious  teach- 
ing, a  shorter  way  of  effecting  the  emancipation  of  the  soul. 
"Without  ignoring  the  efficacy  of  good  works,  it  taught  that 
by  faith  alone,  in  Krishna  or  in  Rama,  as  an  incarnation  of 
Vishnu,  the  soul  might  be  delivered  from  the  vortex  of  suc- 
cessive existences,  and  would  either  be  raised  to  an  everlast- 
ing heaven  of  the  highest  beatitude  or  be  absorbed  in  the 
Supreme  Spirit — Vishnu. 

HINDU  LITERATURE  comprises  numerous  works  on  meta- 
physics, logic,  rhetoric,  poetry,  arithmetic,  musical  science, 
and  other  like  compositions,  which  were  all  more  or  less 
treated  in  connection  with  religion.  But  nothing  has  been 


88  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

discovered  that  merits  the  name  of  history,  or  warrants  the 
hope  that  authentic  annals  exist  in  any  of  the  Indian  lan- 
guages.1 Relics  of  traditions  are,  however,  to  be  found  in  po- 
etry and  the  drama,  which  may  serve  to  illustrate  Hindu  life 
and  manners  before  Muhammadans  or  Europeans  appeared 
upon  the  scene.  But  Hindu  poets  devoted  so  much  time  to 
the  arbitrary  conceits  of  composition,  fanciful  descriptions 
of  scenery  and  the  four  seasons,  and  endless  myths  and  mar- 
vels, that  vast  accumulations  of  poetical  overgrowth  have 
to  be  cleared  away  before  it  is  possible  to  arrive  at  the  kernel 
of  matter-of-fact  history.4 

The  drama  of  "Sakuntala"  was  written  by  a  poet  named 
Kalidasa,  and  was  probably  composed  at  a  late  period  in  the 
history  of  the  mediaeval  Rajas;  but  the  plot  refers  to  the  old- 
est period  in  Hindu  legend,  namely,  the  birth  of  Bharata, 
the  conqueror  of  India.  It  opens  with  a  Brahmanical  her- 
mitage; one  of  those  secluded  groves  where  Brahmans  dwelt 
with  their  wives  and  families,  and  were  supposed  to  spend 
their  lives  in  sacred  studies,  religious  worship,  and  divine 
contemplations. 

A  Raja  named  Dushyanta  was  hunting  in  the  jungle, 
and  chased  an  antelope  which  took  refuge  in  the  hermitage. 


1  Grant  Duff,  in  his  History  of  the  Mahrattas,  speaks  with  favor  of  native 
annals ;  but  later  researches  have  proved  that  such  annals  are  nearly  worthless 
for  purposes  of  history.  The  author  wasted  much  time  and  labor  before  he  was 
driven  to  this  conclusion,  which  has  since  been  confirmed  by  Professor  Buhler 
of  Bombay.  See  larger  History  of  India,  vol.  iv.  chap.  ii.  and  Appendix.  Also 
Buhler's  Introduction  to  the  Vikramankakavya,  Bombay,  1875. 

8  The  court  life  of  Hindu  authors  was  unfavorable  to  historical  accuracy. 
They  depended  for  their  existence  on  the  bounty  of  reigning  Rajas,  and  the  first 
object  of  their  compositions  was  to  please  their  royal  patrons.  Every  principal- 
ity, small  and  great,  had  its  own  hereditary  bards  and  Pundits,  who  were  sup- 
ported by  allowances  from  the  palace.  Young  students,  fresh  from  their  precep- 
tors, betook  themselves  to  a  wandering  life,  and  visited  one  court  after  another, 
holding  disputations,  showing  off  their  learning,  and  composing  poetry  for  the 
delectation  of  princes,  who  cared  only  to  be  amused.  Such  wandering  bards 
and  Pundits  are  still  to  be  encountered  all  over  India ;  but  the  greater  number 
appear  to  be  travelling  from  the  Punjab  and  Oude  through  Rajputana  toward 
Baroda  and  Bombay.  The  tour  often  lasts  five  or  six  years,  and  includes  places 
of  pilgrimage  as  well  as  courts  of  princes.  Professor  Buhler,  in  the  Introduc- 
tion already  quoted,  dwells  on  the  jealousies  displayed  by  the  hereditary  barda 
and  Pundits  toward  these  foreign  wanderers. 


HINDU   INDIA  89 

He  was  drawing  his  bow  to  shoot  the  animal,  when  the 
Brahmans  rushed  out  and  implored  him  not  to  pollute  their 
sanctuary  by  shedding  blood.  The  Raja  piously  refrained, 
but  at  this  moment  he  saw  the  daughter  of  a  Brahman,  the 
beautiful  Sakuntala,  walking  in  the  garden  of  the  hermitage 
with  other  girl  companions.  The  Raja  soon  fell  in  love  with 
her,  and  induced  her  to  marry  him  by  one  of -those  irregular 
ceremonies  which  were  discountenanced  by  Manu.  Subse- 
quently Sakuntala  gave  birth  to  the  infant  Bharata,  but  the 
Raja  refused  to  recognize  his  marriage,  and  even  denied  all 
knowledge  of  Sakuntala,  until  by  some  supernatural  incident 
his  eyes  were  opened,  and  he  accepted  her  as  his  wife  and 
Bharata  as  his  son.  Bharata  grew  up  to  be  the  conqueror 
of  India,  and  was  the  ancestor  of  the  Pandavas  and  Kau- 
ravas  who  fought  in  the  great  war. 

The  drama  of  "Sakuntala"  is  based  upon  incidents  which 
are  foreign  to  European  works  of  imagination.  The  Raja 
had  given  a  ring  to  Sakuntala  as  the  pledge  of  his  troth; 
and  she  had  lost  the  ring  while  bathing  in  a  pool ;  and  so 
long  as  the  ring  was  missing  the  Raja  could  not  recognize 
his  wife.  Subsequently  the  ring  was  found  in  the  body  of 
a  fish  and  recovered  by  the  Raja.  From  that  day  he  re- 
membered his  lost  Sakuntala ;  and  going  out  into  the  jungle 
he  saw  a  young  lad  playing  with  lions,  who  proved  to  be  his 
own  son  Bharata. 

The  beauty  of  the  play  of  "Sakuntala"  lies  not  in  the 
strong  individuality  of  the  leading  characters,  but  in  the 
general  appreciation  of  external  nature,  the  love  of  flowers, 
the  girl-like  talk  of  the  damsels,  and  the  variety  of  emotions 
which  stir  the  heart  of  Sakuntala.  Indeed  the  language  is 
so  sweet  and  touching  that  to  this  day  no  Sanskrit  drama 
is  more  admired  by  the  people  of  India  than  "Sakuntala; 
or,  the  lost  ring."  '• 

The  poem  of  "Nala  and  Damayanti"  is  more  romantic. 
Nala,  Raja  of  Malwa,  was  a  famous  archer,  but  especially 

1  The  drama  of  "Sakuntala"  is  best  known  to  European  readers  through  the 
elegant  translation  of  Professor  Monier  Williams. 


90  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

renowned  as  a  charioteer.  The  tramp  of  his  horses  was 
heard  from  afar,  like  the  roll  of  distant  thunder;  and  the 
noise  of  his  chariot  wheels  was  like  the  rushing  of  many 
waters. 

Damayanti  was  a  princess  of  Vidarbha.1  She  was  the 
pearl  of  maidens  as  Nala  was  the  tiger  among  Rajas.  She 
had  given  her  heart  to  Nala,  and  vowed  that  no  one  but 
Nala  should  be  her  lord  and  husband. 

The  poem  opens  with  the  Swayamvara  of  Damayanti. 
The  fame  of  her  beauty  had  reached  the  skies;  and  Indra 
and  the  other  gods  came  down  from  the  heaven  of  Swarga 
to  be  candidates  for  her  hand.  .They  appeared  in  the  assem- 
bly hall  in  the  forms  of  Rajas,  but  Damayanti  knew  that 
they  were  gods,  for  there  was  no  winking  of  their  eyes,  no 
perspiration  on  their  brows,  no  dust  on  their  garments,  and 
no  faded  leaf  in  their  wreaths  of  flowers.  But  she  was  reck- 
less in  her  love ;  she  cared  not  for  the  anger  of  the  gods ;  she 
threw  the  garland  round  the  neck  of  Nala,  and  chose  him 
for  her  husband  in  the  presence  of  them  all.4 

Nala  and  Damayanti  were  married  at  Vidarbha,  and  the 
Raja  returned  with  his  loving  wife  to  his  city  in  Malwa.* 
Beautiful  children  were  born  to  them,  and  they  were  rich 
in  every  blessing. 

But  Nala  was  a  gambler,  and  the  dice-box  was  his  ruin. 
In  an  evil  hour  he  sat  down  to  play,  and  lost  stake  after 
stake,  like  Yudhishthira  in  the  gambling  booth  at  Hastina- 
pur.  The  chieftains  of  the  Raj  assembled  at  the  palace  and 
implored  him  to  stay  his  hand ;  but  he  was  deaf  to  all  their 
prayers,  and  hotly  continued  the  game.  At  last  he  lost  all 
his  treasures,  his  kingdom,  and  his  home;  and  then  went 
out  in  the  jungle  to  live  on  fruits  and  roots. 

Meanwhile  Damayanti  never  deserted  her  husband.     She 

1  The  old  city  of  Vidarbha  in  the  Dekhan  corresponds  to  the  city  of  Bider. 
The  magnificent  remains  of  the  fortress  and  palace  are  still  to  be  seen  at  Bider. 

9  The  appearance  of  the  Vaidik  gods  at  the  Swayamvara  of  Damayanti  is  a 
poetical  episode.  It  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  after  story. 

8  The  region  known  as  Malwa  lies  in  Hindustan,  between  the  Nerbuddha 
and  Chandal  rivers.  It  is  impossible  to  identify  the  site  of  Nala's  capital. 


HINDU   INDIA  91 

sent  her  children  to  the  palace  of  her  father  at  Vidarbha, 
and  went  with  Nala  into  the  jungle.  But  Nala  was  driven 
wild  by  the  sufferings  of  his  wife,  and  fell  into  a  melancholy 
madness.  At  last  he  left  her  sleeping  in  the  jungle,  and 
fled  to  the  city  of  Ayodhya,  and  entered  the  service  of  the 
Raja  of  Kosala  as  his  charioteer. 

The  poem  next  dwells  on  the  anguish  of  Damayanti  at 
discovering  that  her  husband  has  deserted  her.  She  wan- 
dered on  in  a  distracted  state,  calling  in  vain  for  Nala.  She 
was  threatened  with  death  in  a  variety  of  ways ;  by  a  jungle 
fire,  a  stampede  of  elephants,  and  the  coils  of  a  deadly  ser- 
pent. At  length  she  found  refuge  in  the  city  of  Chedipur, 
and  eventually  returned  to  the  palace  of  her  father.  But 
her  heart  still  yearned  after  her  husband  Nala,  and  she  sent 
Brahmans  in  all  directions  to  find  out  whither  he  had  gone. 

At  this  crisis  the  Raja  of  Kosala  had  occasion  to  go  to 
the  city  of  Vidarbha,  and  was  driven  by  Nala  as  his  char- 
ioteer. Damayanti  was  aroused  from  her  despair  by  the 
well-remembered  sounds  of  her  husband's  driving.  The 
peacocks  in  the  palace  gardens  clamored  at  the  tramp  of 
the  horses  and  rolling  of  the  chariot  wheels,  while  the  royal 
elephants  roared  tumultuously.  The  wife  was  thus  restored 
to  her  husband,  and  Nala  recovered  possession  of  his  children 
and  his  Raj. 

The  story  of  "Nala  and  Damayanti,"  like  the  drama  of 
"Sakuntala,"  owes  its  chief  charm  to  the  play  upon  the 
emotions  and  affections.  It  does  not  carry  the  reader  back 
to  the  wild  tumults  of  a  barbarous  age,  like  Shakespeare's 
tragedies  of  "Macbeth"  and  "King  Lear";  but  it  points  to 
an  age  of  Arcadian  simplicity,  when  the  chieftains  of  a  Raj 
endeavor  to  induce  the  Raja  to  put  a  stop  to  his  gambling 
match.  In  other  respects  the  story  was  calculated  to  excite 
warm  sympathies  in  a  palace  or  zenana,  but  tells  nothing  of 
the  old  world  of  the  Hindus  which  has  passed  away. 

A  Sanskrit  drama,  known  as  the  "Toy-cart,"  deals  with 
a  wider  range  of  characters.  The  scene  is  laid  in  Ujain  or 
Oojein,  one  of  the  oldest  cities  in  Rajputana.  A  vicious 


92  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

prince,  the  brother  of  the  Raja  of  Ujain,  falls  in  love  with  a 
lady  of  the  city ;  she  resists  his  advances,  and  he  leaves  her 
for  dead  in  a  public  garden.  He  tries  to  throw  the  guilt  of 
the  murder  on  an  innocent  Brahman.  The  case  is  investi- 
gated by  a  Hindu  court  of  justice;  and  the  judges,  while 
anxious  to  shield  the  Brahman,  are  compelled  by  the  force 
of  the  circumstantial  evidence  to  find  him  guilty.  The 
sentence  is  referred  to  the  Raja  of  Ujain,  who  orders  the 
Brahman  to  be  executed. 

The  unfortunate  man  is  led  away  to  the  scaffold.  At 
this  crisis,  the  lady  who  is  supposed  to  have  been  murdered 
suddenly  makes  her  appearance.  The  multitude  exult  in  the 
escape  of  the  Brahman,  and  rush  off  to  tell  the  Raja  of  his 
innocence;  but  at  that  moment  a  revolution  breaks  out  in 
another  quarter  of  the  city,  the  Raja  is  deposed  and  slain, 
his  wicked  brother  escapes  into  exile,  and  a  cow-keeper 
sprung  from  the  dregs  of  the  people  is  raised  to  the  throne 
of  Ujain. 

Out  of  this  simple  plot  the  Sanskrit  bard  has  constructed 
a  drama  which  may  have  been  drawn  from  actual  lif e,  but 
the  incidents  are  artificial,  the  sentiments  are  devoid  of  all 
romance,  and  the  characters  are  exaggerated  in  themselves 
and  move  about  like  automata. 

The  innocent  Brahman,  the  hero  of  the  story,  is  named 
Charudatta,  and  is  said  to  have  spent  his  patrimony  in  giv- 
ing entertainments  to  his  friends,  acquaintances,  and  de- 
pendents; and  in  building  temples  and  monasteries,  laying 
out  gardens  and  digging  fountains  of  water.  He  continues, 
however,  to  reside  in  the  ruined  mansion,  and  maintains  his 
family  by  the  sale  of  his  wife's  jewels,  and  by  such  gifts  as 
the  people  of  India  are  accustomed  to  give  to  Brahmans  out 
of  respect  for  their  sacred  character.  The  heroine  of  the 
drama  is  not  the  wife  of  Charudatta,  but  a  courtesan,  who 
is  in  love  with  him ;  and  this  is  the  lady  who  is  supposed  to 
have  been  murdered  by  the  brother  of  the  Raja. 

The  foregoing  incidents  will  suffice  to  show  that  the  story 
is  out  of  the  pale  of  European  sympathies,  which  would 


HINDU   INDIA  93 

have  been  given  to  the  wife  alone.  But  the  Sanskrit  dram- 
atist goes  further  and  introduces  an  incident  which  is  an 
outrage  on  all  morality  and  good  manners.  He  winds  up  the 
plot  by  giving  the  courtesan  as  a  second  wife  to  Charudatta, 
and  by  representing  the  first  wife  as  slavishly  submitting  to 
the  arrangement,  and  addressing  her  rival  as  her  sister. 
Such  an  ending  could  only  have  been  constructed  for  the 
amusement  of  Hindu  Rajas;  it  could  never  have  satisfied 
the  moral  sense  of  the  Hindu  people,  or  have  been  regarded 
as  a  contribution  to  the  national  drama. 

It  is  difficult  out  of  the  disjointed  and  inconsistent  mate- 
rials collected  in  the  foregoing  chapters  to  realize  the  actual 
condition  of  India  under  the  ancient  Hindu  Rajas.  It  is, 
however,  evident  that  the  whole  Indian  continent  was  a 
chaos  of  conflicting  elements,  evolving  large  ideas  of  God 
and  the  universe,  but  utterly  wanting  in  political  life  and 
cohesion.  The  after  history  will  show  the  results  of  Mu- 
hammadan  and  British  rule,  and  how  much  remains  to  be 
effected  before  the  people  of  India  can  expect  to  take  their 
place  among  the  independent  empires  of  the  world. 


PART  II  — MUHAMMADAN   INDIA 


M1 


CHAPTER   I 
TURKS  AND  AFGHANS 

A.D.  1000   TO  1685 

UHAMMAD,  the  prophet  of  Arabia,,  commonly  called 
Mahomet,  was  born,  A.D.  570,  and  died  in  632.  He 
was  still  living  when  Hiouen-Thsang  began  his 
pilgrimage  to  India.  He  taught  that  there  was  but  one 
God,  and  that  he  himself  was  the  prophet  of  God.  All  who 
believed  in  God  and  his  prophet  were  to  be  rewarded  with 
eternal  bliss  in  heaven ;  all  who  refused  to  believe  were  to 
be  punished  with  eternal  torment  in  hell.  Moreover,  all  be- 
lievers were  regarded  as  equals  in  the  eyes  of  God,  without 
distinction  of  caste  or  tribe ;  they  were  all  bound  together  in 
the  brotherhood  of  Islam.  Every  man  who  accepted  Islam 
was  also  allowed  to  marry  more  than  one  wife ;  he  might  be 
content  with  one,  but  if  he  chose  he  might  marry  others,  not 
exceeding  four. 

After  the  death  of  Muhammad,  four  Khalifs  reigned  in 
succession  at  Medina  from  A.D.  633  to  660;  their  names 
were  Abubakr,  Omar,  Othman,  and  Ali.1  They  were  fol- 
lowed by  a  line  of  Khalifs  who  reigned  at  Damascus  from 
A.D.  660  to  750;  and  these  again  by  a  line  of  Khalifs  who 
reigned  at  Bagdad  from  A.D.  750  to  1258.  These  Khalifs 
were  not  prophets  or  founders  of  a  new  religion  like  Mu- 

1  The  importance  of  these  names  will  be  seen  in  the  sequel. 
(94) 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  95 

hammad,  but  sovereign  pontiffs  who  were  supposed  to  be 
supreme  in  all  spiritual  and  temporal  affairs. 

The  death  of  Muhammad  was  followed  by  the  Arab  con- 
quest of  all  Asia  as  far  as  the  Indus  and  Oxus;  but  there 
the  tide  of  invasion  began  to  turn.  Persians,  Turks,  and 
Afghans  accepted  the  religion  of  the  Koran,  but  rebelled 
against  the  domination  of  the  Arabs.  The  Turks  especially 
founded  independent  kingdoms  in  Central  Asia.  They  ac- 
knowledged the  reigning  Khalif  as  their  spiritual  head,  but 
refused  to  obey  him  as  a  temporal  sovereign. 

The  Arabs  began  to  invade  India  when  the  Khalifs  were 
reigning  at  Damascus.  They  ravaged  Sinde  on  the  lower 
course  of  the  Indus,  destroying  temples,  slaughtering  Brah- 
mans,  and  carrying  off  the  people  into  slavery.  But  the 
Hindus  would  not  become  Muhammadans.  At  last  they 
agreed  to  pay  tribute,  and  were  permitted  to  rebuild  their 
temples  and  worship  their  gods  after  their  own  fashion. 

The  first  conqueror  of  India  of  any  renown  was  a  Turk 
named  Mahmud.  In  997  Mahmud  succeeded  to  the  throne 
of  Ghazni,  a  small  territory  in  Kabul.  Before  he  died  he 
conquered  all  Persia  on  one  side,  and  a  great  part  of  India 
on  the  other ;  but  he  never  removed  his  court  from  Ghazni, 
and  consequently  he  is  only  known  to  history  as  Mahmud  of 
Ghazni. 

In  1001  Mahmud  marched  an  army  of  Turkish  horsemen 
from  Ghazni  to  Peshawar.  Jaipal,  Raja  of  the  Punjab, 
came  out  to  meet  him  with  a  host  of  elephants  and  foot  sol- 
diers, but  was  beaten  by  the  Turkish  horsemen,  and  taken 
prisoner.  Jaipal  promised  to  pay  tribute,  and  was  set  at 
liberty,  but  he  would  not  survive  his  disgrace.  He  returned 
to  Lahore,  gave  his  kingdom  to  his  son  Anandpal,  and  burned 
himself  alive  on  a  funeral  pile. 

For  some  years  Raja  Anandpal  paid  the  tribute  regu- 
larly. He  then  began  to  grow  refractory,  and  prevailed  on 
the  Rajas  of  Western  Hindustan  to  come  to  his  help.  Vast 
armies  of  elephants  and  Hindu  foot  soldiers  moved  up  from 
Delhi  and  Kanouj,  Ajmir,  and  Ujain,  and  marched  through 


96  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

the  Punjab  to  Peshawar.  The  Hindu  women  joined  in  the 
enthusiasm  against  the  Turks,  and  sold  their  jewels,  or  spun 
cotton,  to  keep  the  armies  in  the  field. 

Mahmud  marched  an  army  of  horsemen  and  archers  to 
the  plain  of  Peshawar.  He  placed  his  archers  in  front  and 
his  horsemen  behind.  The  archers  began  the  battle;  but 
some  wild  hill  tribes,  known  as  the  Gakkars,  crept  through 
the  archers,  and  began  to  cut  down  the  horsemen  with  sharp 
knives.  Meanwhile  the  elephants  of  the  Hindus  were  blinded 
by  arrows  and  maddened  by  fire-balls,  and  turned  round  and 
trampled  down  the  Hindu  infantry.  At  that  moment  the 
Turkish  horsemen  raised  their  swords  and  maces,  and  gal- 
loped furiously  upon  the  Hindus  with  loud  cries  of  "Allah 
Akbar!"  The  army  of  the  Rajput  league  wavered  and 
fled.  The  Turkish  horsemen  pursued  the  fugitives  for  two 
days,  and  plundered  temples  and  destroyed  idols.  At  last 
Anandpal  sued  for  peace,  and  sent  tribute  and  war  ele- 
phants. The  peace  lasted  till  the  death  of  Anandpal,  when 
Mahmud  annexed  the  Punjab,  and  made  it  a  province  of  his 
empire  of  Ghazni. 

Subsequently  Mahmud  began  to  invade  Hindustan.  He 
is  said  to  have  made  twelve  expeditions  into  that  country, 
plundering  temples,  breaking  down  idols,  and  carrying  off 
vast  treasures  to  Ghazni,  as  well  as  multitudes  of  slaves, 
male  and  female. 

When  Mahmud  was  growing  old  he  resolved  on  destroy- 
ing the  great  temple  of  Somnath  hi  Guzerat.  Somnath  was 
a  thousand  miles  from  Ghazni,  but  was  reputed  to  contain 
immense  treasures.  There  was  an  idol  pillar  in  the  temple, 
the  symbol  of  the  Supreme  Spirit,  known  as  Siva,  or  Maha- 
deva.  A  thousand  Brahmans  dwelt  at  Somnath  to  offer  the 
daily  sacrifices,  and  five  hundred  damsels  were  engaged  in 
the  temple  to  dance  before  the  idol. 

The  route  to  Somnath  lay  through  the  desert  of  Sinde. 
Mahmud  marched  thirty  thousand  horsemen  through  west- 
ern Rajputana  to  escape  the  burning  sands.  The  Rajputs 
made  no  attempt  to  oppose  him,  but  abandoned  their  cities 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  97 

at  his  approach.  "When,  however,  Mahmud  reached  Som- 
nath  the  Rajputs  were  assembled  in  great  strength  to  defend 
their  god.  The  temple  was  built  on  a  peninsula  out  at  sea; 
it  was  approached  by  a  narrow  isthmus,  which  was  strongly 
fortified  with  walls  and  battlements,  manned  with  Rajputs. 
For  two  days  there  was  desperate  fighting  and  great  slaugh- 
ter. The  Turkish  archers  sought  to  drive  the  Rajputs  from 
the  battlements,  while  the  Turkish  swordsmen  planted  their 
ladders  and  climbed  the  walls.  At  last  the  Rajputs  saw 
that  all  was  lost,  and  fled  to  their  boats,  and  put  out  to  sea. 

When  the  battle  was  over  Mahmud  entered  the  temple. 
It  was  a  large  gloomy  building  supported  by  fifty-six  col- 
umns. The  idol  pillar  was  in  an  inner  chamber.  The  Brah- 
mans  implored  Mahmud  to  spare  the  idol  pillar,  and  offered 
to  pay  an  enormous  ransom.  But  Mahmud  said,  "I  come  to 
destroy  idols,  not  to  sell  them."  He  struck  the  pillar  with 
his  mace  and  broke  it  to  pieces,  while  piles  of  diamonds  and 
rubies,  which  had  been  hidden  in  the  pillar,  fell  scattered 
upon  the  floor. 

Mahmud  returned  from  Guzerat  to  Ghazni,  but  lost 
nearly  all  his  army  on  the  way.  The  Rajputs  of  Ajmir 
came  out  in  such  force  that  he  was  compelled  to  march 
through  the  desert.  His  guides  led  him  astray  through 
sandy  wastes  in  order  to  avenge  the  destruction  of  Som- 
nath.  Many  of  his  soldiers  died  of  thirst,  while  others  went 
mad  from  the  burning  sun.  Water  was  found  at  last;  the 
guides  were  put  to  death;  but  only  a  remnant  of  the  army 
reached  Ghazni. 

Mahmud  died  in  1030,  aged  sixty-three.  The  annals  of 
the  century  and  a  half  which  followed  tell  of  wars  and 
revolutions  in  Central  Asia,  but  say  nothing  of  India.  The 
Afghans  supplanted  the  Turks.  They  became  masters  of  a 
mountain  fortress  named  Ghor,  between  Ghazni  and  Herat; 
they  next  drove  the  dynasty  of  Mahmud  out  of  Ghazni,  and 
became  lords  of  Kabul  and  the  Punjab.  The  next  conqueror 
after  Mahmud,  who  made  a  name  in  India,  was  Muhammad 
Ghori,  the  Afghan. 
HOP  I— 5 


98  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

Muhammad  Ghori  resolved  on  the  conquest  of  Hindu- 
stan. In  1191  he  marched  an  army  against  the  Raja  of 
Delhi.  He  tried  to  throw  the  Rajas  into  confusion  by  re- 
peated charges  with  cavalry,  but  found  himself  surrounded 
by  the  enemy,  and  had  a  narrow  escape  with  his  life.  But 
the  Rajput  dominion  was  weakened  by  feuds.  There  was  a 
feud  between  Delhi  and  Kanouj,  which  soon  opened  a  way 
for  the  Afghans  into  Hindustan. 

The  Maharaja  of  Kanouj  on  the  Ganges  claimed  to  be  a 
lord  paramount  among  the  Rajputs.  He  gave  a  great  feast 
and  summoned  all  the  Rajas  of  Hindustan  to  appear  as  his 
vassals,  and  play  their  parts  as  servants  in  his  household. 
At  the  same  time  he  celebrated  the  Swayamvara  of  his 
daughter. 

The  Raja  of  Delhi  loved  the  daughter  of  the  Maharaja  of 
Kanouj,  but  he  scorned  to  serve  as  doorkeeper  at  the  feast, 
and  he  refused  to  come.  The  Maharaja  was  wroth  at  the 
affront,  and  ordered  an  image  to  be  made  of  the  Delhi  Raja 
and  placed  it  at  the  door  of  the  hall.  The  feast  was  held 
and  the  Swayamvara  began.  The  princess  entered  the  hall 
with  the  marriage  garland  in  her  hand.  She  threw  one  look 
on  the  assembly,  and  then  turned  to  the  door  and  cast  the 
garland  round  the  neck  of  the  image.  The  whole  assembly 
was  in  commotion.  Before  a  man  could  speak,  the  Raja  of 
Delhi  appeared  in  the  hall  and  led  away  the  princess.  In 
another  moment  the  bridegroom  galloped  off  with  his  bride 
along  the  road  to  Delhi. 

The  Maharaja  of  Kanouj  brought  the  Afghans  down 
upon  his  son-in-law.  He  invited  Muhammad  Ghori  to 
march  another  army  to  Delhi,  and  the  Afghan  horsemen 
were  soon  on  their  way  to  the  famous  city.  The  Raja  of 
Delhi  heard  that  his  enemy  had  again  taken  the  field;  he 
took  no  heed,  for  he  cared  only  for  his  bride.  At  last  the 
Muhammadans  were  thundering  at  the  gates  of  Delhi. 
The  Raja  put  on  his  mail  and  went  out  against  the  invad- 
ers; but  it  was  too  late.  He  perished  sword  in  hand,  and 
his  widow  burned  herself  upon  his  funeral  pile. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA 


99 


"TURKS  &  AFGHANS. 


100  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

The  Maharaja  of  Kanouj  soon  had  bitter  cause  to  rue  his 
treachery;  he  shared  the  fate  of  his  son-in-law.  In  1094  he 
was  defeated  by  Muhammad  Ghori,  and  he  and  his  army 
were  driven  into  the  Ganges.  His  remains  were  known  by 
his  false  teeth,  which  were  fastened  by  golden  wire ;  the  relic 
of  an  age  of  Rajput  civilization  which  has  passed  away. 

The  defeat  and  death  of  the  Maharaja  of  Kanouj  ad- 
vanced the  dominion  of  the  Muhammadans  from  Delhi  to 
Benares.  Temples  were  plundered  and  idols  were  destroyed 
along  the  valleys  of  the  Jumna  and  Ganges.  Meanwhile 
the  Rajput  princes  left  their  ancestral  homes  to  carve  out 
new  empires  with  their  swords  in  the  jungles  and  hills  of 
the  south ;  and  they  preserved  their  old  laws  and  usages  in 
the  region  which  to  this  day  is  called  Rajputana  or  Raj- 
asthan,  "the  land  of  the  Rajputs  or  Rajas."  * 

Muhammad  Ghori  conquered  a  larger  territory  in  India 
than  Mahmud ;  but  he  too  kept  his  court  at  Ghazni.  When 
absent  from  India  he  appointed  a  favorite  named  Kutub-ud- 
din  to  be  his  Viceroy  over  the  Punjab  and  Hindustan.  In 
1206,  while  returning  from  India  to  Ghazni,  he  was  assassi- 
nated by  some  men  of  the  Gakkar  tribes — the  same  race  who 
had  slaughtered  Mahmud's  horsemen  at  Peshawar.  They 
had  vowed  revenge  for  the  slaughter  of  some  kinsmen,  and 
they  stabbed  Muhammad  Ghori  to  death  as  he  lay  sleeping 
in  his  tent  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus. 

The  death  of  Muhammad  Ghori  was  followed  by  the  dis- 
memberment of  the  Afghan  empire.  Kutub-ud-din  ceased 
to  be  a  Viceroy,  and  was  proclaimed  Sultan  of  Delhi.  He 
was  originally  a  slave,  who  rose  to  power  under  Muhammad 
Ghori  as  Joseph  had  risen  in  the  court  of  the  Pharaohs.  He 
was  the  first  of  a  dynasty  which  is  known  in  history  as  that 
of  the  slave  kings.  His  reign  was  a  career  of  conquest. 
His  tower  of  triumph  still  stands  among  the  ruins  of  old 
Delhi,  and  is  one  of  the  tallest  in  the  world.  It  is  known 


1  The  region  extends  on  the  south  and  west  of  the  Jumna,  between  the  river 
Indus  and  the  river  ChambaL 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  101 

as  the  Kutub  Minar.  It  proclaims  the  victory  of  Islam  over 
the  idol-worshippers  of  Hindustan. 

Under  Kutub-ud-din  the  dominion  of  the  Muhammadans 
was  extended  to  the  Brahma-putra  river.  The  intervening 
country  of  Bihar  and  Bengal  was  conquered  with  the  utmost 
ease.  A  Muhammadan  adventurer  named  Bakhtiyar  was 
famous  for  the  length  of  his  arms.  He  was  a  man  of  valor 
and  audacity,  but  so  ill-favored  that  he  could  not  obtain 
military  service  at  Delhi,  and  went  away  to  the  eastern  fron- 
tier near  Benares.  Here  he  became  the  leader  of  a  band  of 
horsemen,  and  began  to  make  plundering  raids  into  Bihar, 
the  holy  land  of  Magadha.  He  captured  the  city  of  Bihar 
and  plundered  it.  He  destroyed  a  college  of  Brahmans  with 
shaven  heads,  and  put  them  all  to  the  sword.  He  advanced 
eastward  to  Nuddea,  the  old  capital  of  Bengal,1  and  entered 
the  city  with  only  eighteen  troopers  disguised  as  horse-deal- 
ers. Nobody  stopped  him,  and  he  and  his  men  reached  the 
palace,  cutting  down  and  murdering  all  who  stood  in  their 
way. 

The  Raja  of  Nuddea  was  eating  his  dinner,  when  he  heard 
an  outbreak  in  the  courtyard;  Bakhtiyar  and  his  horsemen 
had  broken  into  the  palace.  The  Raja  was  so  frightened 
that  he  ran  out  at  the  back  of  the  palace,  reached  the  bank 
of  a  rivor,  and  took  a  boat  and  sailed  away  to  Jagganath, 
leaving  his  family  and  treasures  at  the  mercy  of  the  Muham- 
madans. He  never  returned  to  Nuddea,  but  passed  the  re- 
mainder of  his  days  at  Jagganath  as  a  religious  devotee. 

Bihar  and  Bengal  were  then  formed  into  a  province  of 
the  Delhi  empire,  and  Bakhtiyar  was  the  first  Viceroy.  The 
capital  was  fixed  at  Gour,  at  the  elbow  of  the  Ganges,  where 
the  river  turns  toward  the  south.  It  thus  commanded  the 
whole  water  communication  of  the  country.  Since  then  the 
river  has  changed  its  course,  and  Gour  has  become  a  heap 
of  ruins. 

Kutub-ud-din  died  in  1210.     The  history  of  his  immediate 

1  Nuddea  ia  about  sixty  miles  due  north  of  the  modem  city  of  Calcutta. 


102  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

successors  is  of  no  interest  or  moment.  The  Sultans  of  Delhi 
had  nothing  to  fear  from  Hindus.  Their  chief  enemies  were 
Tartar  hordes  known  as  Moghuls — the  men  who  overran  Asia 
and  part  of  Europe  under  Chenghiz  Khan  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  They  entered  the  Punjab  and  Hindustan  under 
different  leaders,  and  were  a  terror  wherever  they  went. 
They  are  described  as  ugly  nomads  with  yellow  complex- 
ions, high  cheek-bones,  flat  noses,  small  eyes,  and  large 
mouths.  They  were  covered  with  vermin,  and  their  smell 
was  detestable.  They  plundered  towns  and  villages,  and 
carried  off  women  and  children  to  serve  as  slaves. 

In  1290  the  last  Sultan  of  the  Afghan  slave  dynasty  was 
assassinated,  and  a  Sultan  ascended  the  throne  at  Delhi  un- 
der the  name  of  Jelal-ud-din.  He  was  an  old  man  of  seventy, 
and  made  no  mark  hi  history;  but  he  had  a  nephew,  named 
Ala-ud-din,  who  became  a  man  of  renown. 

Ala-ud-din  was  appointed  governor  of  the  fortress  of 
Karra,  near  Allahabad.  His  first  exploit  was  the  plunder 
of  the  Buddhist  temples  at  Bhilsa.  This  involved  an  expe- 
dition more  than  three  hundred  miles  to  the  south  through 
the  jungles  of  Bundelkund;  for  Bhilsa  is  seated  on  the  slopes 
of  the  Vindhya  range  of  mountains,  which  separate  Hindu- 
stan from  the  Dekhan.  The  Sultan  was  so  pleased  with  this 
adventure,  and  especially  with  the  treasure  brought  away 
from  Bhilsa,  that  he  appointed  Ala-ud-din  to  be  Viceroy  of 
Oude. 

Ala-ud-din  next  planned  another  expedition,  still  more 
venturesome.  At  Bhilsa  he  had  heard  of  a  Mahratta  king- 
dom extending  southward  of  the  Nerbudda  river  over  the 
Western  Dekhan.  The  capital  was  Deoghur,  but  it  was  as 
far  from  Bhilsa  as  Bhilsa  was  from  Karra.  Indeed,  the 
distance  from  Karra  to  Deoghur  was  not  less  than  seven 
hundred  miles. 

Ala-ud-din  kept  his  scheme  a  profound  secret  from  his 
uncle  the  Sultan.  He  levied  a  force  of  eight  thousand  horse- 
men, and  disappeared  quietly  from  Karra.  His  way  led 
through  much  of  the  scene  of  Rama's  wanderings ;  through 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  103 

the  jungles  of  Bundelkund,  the  tableland  of  Malwa,  and 
over  the  Vindhya  mountains  and  river  Nerbudda.  He  gave 
out  that  he  had  quarrelled  with  his  uncle  the  Sultan  and  was 
going  to  enter  the  service  of  some  Hindu  Raja.  No  one 
doubted  the  truth  of  the  story;  indeed,  as  already  seen, 
princes  in  India  had  been  going  into  exile  from  the  remot- 
est antiquity,  as  the  natural  result  of  some  feud  or  quarrel 
that  could  not  be  promptly  avenged. 

Ala-ud-din  and  his  horsemen  at  last  approached  the  walls 
of  Deoghur.  The  Mahratta  Raja  was  taken  by  surprise;  he 
could  not  believe  his  eyes  when  the  Muhammadan  horsemen 
galloped  into  the  city.  He  fled  to  a  hill  fortress,  and  found 
to  his  discomfiture  that  it  was  provisioned  with  salt  instead  of 
grain.  He  hoped,  however,  that  the  strangers  would  force 
the  city  to  pay  a  ransom,  and  speedily  go  away,  after  the 
manner  of  predatory  brigands. 

Meanwhile  Ala-ud-din  plundered  the  city,  and  tortured 
the  merchants  and  bankers  to  deliver  up  their  hidden  hoards. 
He  attacked  the  fortress  where  the  Raja  had  taken  refuge, 
and  found  it  to  be  very  strong.  He  gave  out  that  he  only 
came  as  the  commander  of  an  advanced  guard  of  the  army 
of  the  Sultan  of  Delhi;  and  that  the  Sultan  was  coming  up 
with  the  main  army,  and  would  soon  starve  out  the  Raja. 
This  threat  and  the  want  of  grain  soon  brought  the  Raja  to 
terms.  He  paid  over  a  large  hoard  of  money  and  jewels, 
and  pledged  himself  to  send  a  yearly  tribute  to  Delhi. 

Ala-ud-din  carried  the  plunder  in  safety  to  Karra,  but 
there  he  had  another  game  to  play.  His  uncle  the  Sultan 
would  certainly  march  an  army  to  Karra,  and  demand  the 
surrender  of  the  plunder;  and  Ala-ud-din  was  resolved  to 
keep  the  spoil.  He  tried  to  cajole  the  Sultan;  expressed 
himself  afraid  of  the  Sultan;  declared  that  if  the  Sultan 
came  alone  he  would  make  over  the  plunder,  but  that  if 
the  Sultan  came  with  an  army  he  would  escape  with  the 
plunder  into  Bengal.  The  Sultan  was  deceived ;  he  believed 
that  his  nephew  was  really  afraid  of  him.  He  went  to  Karra 
with  an  army,  but  halted  the  troops  on  the  western  bank  of 


j.04:  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

the  Ganges,  while  he  crossed  the  river  in  a  small  boat  to 
meet  his  nephew  on  the  opposite  side.  Ala-ud-din  greeted 
his  uncle  affectionately,  when  the  Sultan  was  struck  by  an 
assassin.  The  old  uncle  cried  out  "treachery,"  and  ran 
back  to  the  boat;  but  he  was  thrown  down  and  beheaded 
on  the  spot,  and  Ala-ud-din  was  proclaimed  Sultan  of  Delhi. 

Ala-ud-din  made  no  attempt  to  excuse  the  murder.  He 
silenced  the  army  by  distributing  money,  and  silenced  the 
people  by  the  same  means.  He  went  to  Delhi,  scattering 
money  the  whole  way.  At  Delhi  booths  were  set  up,  and 
victuals  and  liquors  were  given  to  all  comers.  The  two  sons 
of  the  murdered  Sultan  were  thrown  into  prison,  deprived  of 
their  eyesight,  and  then  murdered.  Meanwhile  the  multi- 
tude were  amused  with  money  and  feasting.  Such  liberal- 
ity proclaimed  the  accession  of  a  new  sovereign.  At  the 
same  time  almsgiving  and  feeding  the  poor  are  regarded 
throughout  the  east  as  atonements  for  sin.  Thus,  even 
those  who  knew  that  the  new  Sultan  had  murdered  his 
uncle  were  inclined  to  believe  that  his  charities  expiated 
the  crime. 

When  Ala-ud-din  was  established  on  the  throne  at  Delhi, 
he  sent  an  army  to  conquer  Guzerat.  The  Raja  was  a  Raj- 
put ;  he  was  defeated  by  the  Muhammadans,  and  fled  away 
south  into  the  Mahratta  country.  His  queen  was  carried  off 
to  Delhi,  and  became  the  wife  of  Ala-ud-din.  The  Rajput 
princess,  in  the  palace  of  her  Muhammadan  conqueror,  was 
sad  and  lonely ;  she  pined  for  the  company  of  a  little  daugh- 
ter, whom  she  had  left  in  Guzerat,  named  Dewal  Devi ;  and 
the  Sultan  sent  messengers  to  bring  the  girl  to  Delhi. 

This  girl  had  a  strange  fate.  She  was  only  eight  years 
old.  Her  father  had  taken  her  with  him  to  the  Mahratta 
country,  and  the  Mahratta  Raja  wanted  to  marry  her  to  his 
son;  but  the  Rajput  Raja,  even  in  exile,  was  too  proud  to 
give  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  a  Mahratta.  Presently 
messengers  came  from  Ala-ud-din  to  bring  away  the  girl  to 
her  mother  at  Delhi.  Such  a  fate  was  considered  to  be  worse 
than  a  Mahratta  marriage;  so  the  Raja  of  Guzerat  changed 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  105 

his  mind  and  agreed  to  marry  his  daughter  to  the  Mahratta. 
But  while  the  bride  was  going  in  the  marriage  procession,  a 
body  of  Muhammadans  fell  upon  the  party,  and  carried  her 
off  to  Delhi.  In  the  end  she  was  married  to  a  son  of  Ala- 
ud-din. 

The  Sultan  next  planned  the  conquest  of  Rajputana.  A 
century  had  passed  away  since  the  Muhammadan  conquest 
of  Hindustan.  A  Rajput  prince  of  Kanouj  had  founded  a 
kingdom  in  Marwar,  or  Jodhpore.  Another  Rajput  prince 
of  Ayodhya,  a  descendant  of  the  famous  Rama,  had  founded 
a  kingdom  at  Chitor.  The  sovereign  of  Chitor  was  renowned 
far  and  wide  under  the  name  of  the  Rana.  The  suzerainty 
of  the  Rana  of  Chitor,  the  descendant  of  Rama,  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  children  of  the  Sun,  was  acknowledged  by 
every  prince  in  Rajputana.1  In  the  present  day  the  suze- 
rainty is  represented  by  the  Rana  of  Udaipur  or  Oodeypore. 

Chitor  was  the  heart  of  Rajputana.  Ala-ud-din  had  in- 
vaded the  country  round  about,  apparently  to  strike  at  the 
heart.  Already  he  had  marched  through  Bundelkund  on 
the  east ;  conquered  the  Mahrattas  on  the  south ;  and  sub- 
dued Guzerat  on  the  west.  He  now  lay  siege  to  Chitor. 
The  siege  is  remarkable  on  account  of  the  self-devotion  of 
the  Rajputs;  they  preferred  to  die  rather  than  surrender 
themselves  or  their  wives  to  the  Muhammadans.  Accord- 
ingly, when  all  was  lost,  they  performed  the  terrible  rite 
known  as  the  Johur.  Huge  piles  of  timber  were  built  up 
and  set  on  fire.  The  women  threw  themselves  into  the 
flames.  The  men  then  rushed  out  of  the  city  and  perished, 
sword  in  hand.  A  few  cut  their  way  through  the  Muham- 
madan army,  and  found  a  refuge  in  the  Aravulli  hills. 

The  siege  of  Chitor  lasted  several  months.  Meanwhile 
there  was  more  than  one  rebellion  among  the  Muhamma- 


1  The  Rajputs  are  divided  into  two  families,  the  children  of  the  Sun  and  the 
children  of  the  Moon;  the  former  have  a  blazing  sun  as  their  ensign,  the  latter 
have  a  crescent.  The  children  of  the  Sun  were  sovereigns  of  Ayodhya  and 
Kanouj.  The  children  of  the  Moon  were  sovereigns  of  Delhi  and  Patali-putra, 
or  Patna. 


106  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

dans.  The  nephew  of  the  Sultan  tried  to  assassinate  him, 
just  as  Ala-ud-din  had  tried  to  assassinate  his  own  uncle; 
but  on  this  occasion  the  uncle  escaped,  and  the  nephew  was 
beheaded.  Afterward  there  was  an  outbreak  at  Delhi,  where 
a  rebel  seized  the  throne  and  held  it  for  seven  days,  when  the 
city  was  retaken  by  a  party  of  horse.  The  rebel  Sultan  had 
opened  the  public  treasury  and  scattered  the  money  among 
the  people.  When  the  ringleaders  were  slain,  and  the  head 
of  the  rebel  Sultan  was  paraded  on  a  spear,  the  people  were 
so  frightened  that  they  carried  back  to  the  treasury  all  the 
money  they  had  picked  up. 

After  the  capture  of  Chitor,  the  Muhammadan  army  re- 
turned to  Delhi,  and  Ala-ud-din  took  strong  measures  for 
keeping  the  city  under  subjection.  He  kept  a  host  of  spies 
to  report  all  that  was  said  and  done  in  the  streets  and  bazars. 
He  prohibited  all  wine-drinking  and  entertainments.  All 
who  imported  wine,  sold  it,  or  drank  it,  were  flogged  and 
sent  to  prison.  The  prisons  were  soon  overflowing,  and 
great  pits  were  dug  outside  Delhi  for  the  reception  of  offend- 
ers. The  Sultan  found,  however,  that  it  was  impossible  to 
prevent  drinking;  he  therefore  proclaimed  that  when  liquor 
was  distilled  privately,  and  drunk  in  private  houses  without 
any  drinking  parties,  the  informers  were  not  to  interfere. 

Meanwhile  the  Moghuls  were  very  troublesome.  In  the 
previous  reign  the  uncle  of  Ala-ud-din  had  enlisted  three 
thousand,  and  settled  them  near  Delhi;  but  they  were  tur- 
bulent, refractory,  and  mixed  up  with  every  rebellion.  Ala- 
ud-din  ordered  them  to  be  disbanded,  and  then  they  tried  to 
murder  him.  Ala-ud-din  then  ordered  a  general  massacre. 
Thousands  are  said  to  have  been  put  to  death,  and  their 
wives  and  children  were  sold  into  slavery. 

Ala-ud-din  was  the  first  Muhammadan  sovereign  who 
conquered  Hindu  Rajas  in  the  Dekhan  and  Peninsula.  Here 
it  may  be  explained  that  India  is  divided  into  three  great 
belts  or  zones:  namely,  Hindustan  in  the  north,  with  the 
Punjab  at  one  end  and  Bengal  at  the  other;  the  Dekhan  in 
the  centre ;  and  the  Peninsula  in  the  south.  The  line  of  the 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  107 

Nerbudda  river  separates  the  Dekhan  from  Hindustan.  The 
line  of  the  Kistna  or  Krishna  river  separates  the  Dekhan 
from  the  Peninsula. 

Ala-ud-din  had  already  conquered  the  Mahratta  country 
in  the  "Western  Dekhan.  The  Eastern  Dekhan  was  covered 
with  the  jungles  of  Gondwana,  but  toward  the  south  was 
the  Telinga  country, l  where  the  Telugu  language  is  spoken. 
The  Peninsula,  generally  speaking,  is  divided  between  the 
Kanarese-speaking  people  in  the  west,  and  the  Tamil-speak- 
ing people  in  the  east.* 

Ala-ud-din  sent  his  general  Malik  Kafur  to  invade  these 
southern  countries,  ransack  temples,  and  carry  off  treasure 
and  tribute.  The  story  is  a  dreary  narrative  of  raid  and 
rapine.  The  Hindus  were  powerless  against  the  Muhamma- 
dans.  Occasionally  they  shut  the  gates  of  a  city  against  the 
invaders,  and  tried  to  defend  their  walls,  but  were  soon  over- 
powered or  starved  out.  Temples  were  stripped  of  gold  and 
jewels,  idols  were  thrown  down  and  spoiled  of  all  precious 
stones,  and  scenes  of  bloodshed  and  outrage  were  enacted 
by  Muhammadan  troopers.  The  Hindus  could  make  little 
resistance:  they  apparently  yielded  to  their  fate  in  abject 
despair. 

It  is  certain  that  Malik  Kafur  plundered  the  temples  of 
Madura  to  the  south  of  Madras,  and  those  of  Mysore  in  the 
western  Peninsula;  a  distance  of  fifteen  hundred  miles  from 
Delhi.  Yet  Muhammadan  historians  say  that  the  army  of 
Malik  Kafur  was  always  connected  with  Delhi  by  a  chain 
of  posts,  with  relays  of  horsemen  and  runners.  Every  day 
news  reached  Delhi  of  the  progress  of  the  army,  while  news 
reached  the  army  of  the  health  of  the  Sultan.  This  constant 
flow  of  intelligence  between  the  camp  and  the  capital  was 


1  The  Telinga  or  Telugu  country  was  the  seat  of  an  ancient  empire,  known 
as  that  of  the  Andhras. — See  ante,  p.  73. 

2  There  are  other  languages,  such  as  Malayalim ;  but  further  details  will  ap- 
pear hereafter.     Telugu  is  spoken  between  Hyderabad  and  the  coast  of  Coro- 
mandel.     The  Tamil  language  is  spoken  hi  the  Madras  Presidency  from  Puticai 
to  Comorin.     Kanarese  is  spoken  in  Mysore. 


108  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

necessary  to  prevent  rebellion.  A  false  rumor  that  the  army 
was  cut  off  might  have  caused  an  outbreak  at  Delhi ;  while 
reports  that  the  Sultan  was  sick  or  dying  might  have  driven 
the  army  to  mutiny  or  rebellion. 

Ala-ud-din  died  in  1316.  His  death  was  followed  by  a 
Hindu  revolt;  indeed  Hindu  influences  must  have  been  at 
work  at  Delhi  for  many  years  previously.  Ala-ud-din  had 
married  a  Hindu  queen ;  his  son  had  married  her  daughter. 
Malik  Kafur  was  a  Hindu  converted  to  Islam.  The  leader 
of  the  revolt  at  Delhi  in  1316  was  another  Hindu  convert  to 
Islam.  The  proceedings  of  the  latter  rebel,  however,  were 
of  a  mixed  character.  He  was  proclaimed  Sultan  under  a 
Muhammadan  name,  and  slaughtered  every  male  of  the 
royal  house.  Meanwhile  his  Hindu  followers  set  up  idols  in 
the  mosques,  and  seated  themselves  on  Korans.  The  rebels 
held  possession  of  Delhi  for  five  months.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  the  city  was  captured  by  the  Turkish  governor  of  the 
Punjab,  named  Tughlak.  The  conqueror  then  ascended 
the  throne  of  Delhi,  and  founded  the  dynasty  of  Tughlak 
Sultans.1 

The  Tughlak  Sultans  would  not  live  at  Delhi;  they  prob- 
ably regarded  it  as  a  Hindu  volcano.  They  held  their  court 
at  Tughlakabad,  a  strong  fortress  about  an  hour's  drive  from 
old  Delhi.  The  transfer  of  the  capital  from  Delhi  to  Tugh- 
lakabad is  a  standpoint  in  history.  It  shows  that  a  time 
had  come  when  the  Turk  began  to  fear  the  Hindu. 

The  conqueror  of  Delhi  died  in  1325.  He  was  succeeded 
by  a  son  who  has  left  his  mark  in  history.  Muhammad 
Tughlak  was  a  Sultan  of  grand  ideas,  but  blind  to  all  expe- 
riences, and  deaf  to  all  counsels.  He  sent  his  armies  into 
the  south  to  restore  the  Muhammadan  supremacy  which  had 
been  shaken  by  the  Hindu  revolt.  Meanwhile  the  Moghuls 
invaded  the  Punjab,  and  Muhammad  Tughlak  bribed  them 
to  go  away  with  gold  and  jewels.  Thus  the  imperial  treas- 

1  There  is  a  curious  likeness  between  the  quasi -religious  revolt  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  and  the  Sepoy  mutiny  in  the  nineteenth.  The  facts  are  set  forth 
at  greater  length  in  the  larger  History  of  India,  vol.  iv. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  109 

ury  was  emptied  of  all  the  wealth  which  had  been  accumu- 
lated by  Ala-ud-din. 

The  new  Sultan  tried  to  improve  his  finances,  but  only 
ruined  the  country  by  his  exactions.  The  rich  people  were 
driven  into  rebellion,  while  the  poor  people  were  driven  to 
beggary.  To  make  matters  worse,  there  was  a  failure  of  the 
rains,  and  consequently  a  dreadful  famine.  The  whole  of 
the  Punjab  and  a  great  part  of  Hindustan  are  said  to  have 
become  a  desolation.  Villages  were  broken  up,  and  thou- 
sands of  families  were  starving. 

The  Sultan  was  so  horrified  at  the  famine  that  he  tried 
to  escape  it.  He  ordered  the  whole  population  of  Delhi  to 
remove  to  Deoghur  in  the  Dekhan.  Thousands  died  on  this 
cruel  journey.  It  was  a  march  of  more  than  seven  hundred 
miles  through  jungles,  over  mountains,  and  across  rivers  like 
the  Nerbudda.  "When  the  survivors  reached  Deoghur,  they 
were  reduced  to  such  misery,  and  died  away  so  rapidly,  that 
the  Sultan  ordered  them  to  go  back  to  Delhi. 

The  Sultan  next  committed  another  act  of  madness.  He 
had  heard  that  the  Chinese  used  paper  money,  bearing  the 
stamp  of  the  emperor,  and  payable  at  the  imperial  treasury. 
Accordingly  he  struck  a  number  of  copper  counters,  and 
ordered  his  subjects  to  receive  them  as  gold  money.  At  first 
this  measure  was  successful.  People  could  buy  all  they 
wanted  with  copper  counters.  Merchants  bought  the  prod- 
ucts of  India  with  copper  counters,  and  sold  them  in  foreign 
countries  for  gold  money.  Muhammad  Tughlak,  by  means 
of  his  copper  counters,  raised  a  large  army  for  the  conquest 
of  China,  and  sent  it  over  the  Himalayas,  where  it  perished 
miserably.  He  raised  another  large  army  for  the  conquest 
of  Persia.  By  this  time  the  state  was  bankrupt;  no  one 
would  take  copper  money,  and  gold  rose  to  four  times  its 
value.  The  army  intended  for  Persia  was  disbanded  for 
want  of  pay;  and  the  reign  of  anarchy  began. 

Copper  counters  were  brought  to  Tughlakabad  in  vast 
heaps,  but  there  was  no  gold  or  silver  in  the  treasury  to  give 
in  exchange.  The  Hindus  had  coined  copper  money  for 


110  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

their  own  use ;  they  had  turned  their  houses  into  mints,  and 
flooded  the  country  with  copper  counters.  They  paid  their 
tribute  in  copper.  Trade  flourished  when  merchants  bought 
Indian  goods  for  copper  and  sold  them  for  foreign  gold;  but 
no  merchants  would  bring  their  goods  to  India  and  sell  them 
for  copper.  Consequently  trade  was  stopped,  and  the  coun- 
try was  ruined. 

Then  followed  rebellions  and  revolutions.  Bengal  re- 
volted, and  became  a  separate  kingdom  under  an  independ- 
ent Sultan.  The  Rajas  of  the  Dekhan  and  Peninsula  with- 
held their  tribute.  The  Muhammadan  army  of  the  Dekhan 
broke  out  into  mutiny,  and  set  up  a  Sultan  of  their  own. 
Muhammad  Tughlak  saw  that  all  men  turned  against  him. 
He  died  in  1350,  after  a  reign  of  twenty-five  years. 

The  history  of  Delhi  fades  away  after  the  death  of  Mu- 
hammad Tughlak.  A  Sultan  reigned  from  1350  to  1388, 
named  Firuz  Shah.  He  is  said  to  have  submitted  to  the 
dismemberment  of  the  empire,  and  done  his  best  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  the  subjects  left  to  him ;  but  it  is  also  said 
that  he  destroyed  temples  and  idols,  and  burned  a  Brahman 
alive  for  perverting  Muhammadan  women. 

In  1398-99,  ten  years  after  the  death  of  Firuz  Shah, 
Timur  Shah  invaded  the  Punjab  and  Hindustan.  The  hor- 
rors of  the  Tartar  invasion  are  indescribable;  they  teach 
nothing  to  the  world,  and  the  tale  of  atrocities  may  well  be 
dropped  into  oblivion.  It  will  suffice  to  say  that  Timur 
came  and  plundered,  and  then  went  away.  He  left  officers 
to  rule  in  his  name,  or  to  collect  tribute  in  his  name.  In 
1450  they  were  put  aside  by  Afghans:  turbulent  Muham- 
madan fanatics  whose  presence  must  have  been  hateful  to 
Hindus.  At  last,  in  1525,  a  descendant  of  Timur,  named 
the  Baber,  invaded  India,  and  conquered  the  Punjab  and 
Hindustan. 

The  history  of  Muhammadan  rule  in  India  may  be 
summed  up  in  a  few  words.  About  1000,  Mahmud  of 
Ghazni  conquered  the  Punjab  and  "Western  Hindustan;  but 
before  1200  his  empire  had  died  out,  and  the  Afghans  of 


MUHAMMAD  AN    INDIA  111 

Ghor  had  become  the  dominant  power  from  the  Punjab 
to  Bengal.  India  was  next  exposed  to  inroads  of  Moghuls; 
the  same  men  who  overthrew  the  Khalifs  of  Bagdad  in  1258. 
About  1300  the  Muhammadan  Sultans  of  Delhi  extended 
their  conquests  into  the  Dekhan  and  Peninsula;  but  then 
followed  the  reaction.  A  Hindu  revolt  broke  out  at  Delhi, 
which  had  ramifications  extending  into  the  remote  south. 
The  Muhammadan  empire  in  India  was  dismembered  into 
petty  kingdoms,  but  the  Hindus  could  not  throw  off  the 
Muhammadan  yoke.  Different  Muhammadan  dynasties 
were  founded  in  Hindustan  and  Bengal,  but  their  history 
is  meagre  and  confused.  For  two  centuries,  from  1350  to 
1550,  the  Dekhan  and  Peninsula  were  the  theatre  of  wars 
between  Muhammadans  and  Hindus;  while  the  Portuguese 
established  a  Christian  power  at  Goa,  on  the  coast  of  Mala- 
bar. Meanwhile  the  once  famous  Moghul  empire  was 
founded  in  Hindustan,  and  for  a  period  of  two  centuries 
was  respected  as  the  paramount  power  in  India.1 


1  The  history  of  the  Muhammadan  empire  in  the  Dekhan  will  be  told  in  the 
next  chapter.  The  history  of  the  Portuguese  power  in  India  is  told  in  Chapter 
HI.  The  history  of  the  Moghul  empire  begins  in  Chapter  IV.,  and  i*  gontinued 
in  the  following  chapters. 


HISTORY    OF    INDIA 


CHAPTER    II 
DEKHAN  AND   PENINSULA 

A.D.   1350   TO  1565 

WHEN  Ala-ud-din  sent  his  army  into  the  Dekhan  and 
Peninsula,  he  opened  up  new  territories.  The 
whole  of  the  region  to  the  south  of  the  Nerbudda 
river  was  distributed  into  a  number  of  kingdoms,  each  hav- 
ing its  own  Raja,  like  the  Punjab  and  Hindustan.  Marco 
Polo  was  coasting  round  the  country  between  1260  and  1295, 
and  describes  some  of  these  Rajas.  Those  of  the  Tamil 
country  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel  were  black  barbarians, 
wearing  nothing  but  a  cloth  about  their  loins,  but  adorned 
with  massive  gold  bracelets,  and  strings  of  rare  and  precious 
stones.  They  worshipped  the  bull  and  cow,  and  had  tem- 
ples, idols,  priests,  and  dancing  girls.  The  Rajas  of  the 
Malabar  country  were  much  of  the  same  stamp,  but  were 
also  famous  for  their  piracies,  as  they  had  been  in  the  days 
of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.1 

Hindu  traditions  tell  of  different  Hindu  empires  which 
were  founded  at  intervals,  and  were  associated  with  differ- 
ences of  religion.  There  were  Brahman  kingdoms  and  Jain 
kingdoms;  there  were  sages  expounding  rival  faiths;  Jain 
Rajas  were  converted  to  the  religion  of  the  Brahmans,  and 
Brahmanical  Rajas  were  brought  over  to  the  religion  of  the 
Jains.  These  controversies  were  often  accompanied  by  cruel 
persecutions  and  religious  wars,  but  the  traditions  are  dying 
out  of  the  memory  of  the  people  of  the  land. 

1  Marco  Polo  seems  to  have  visited  the  coast  before  the  expeditions  of  Malik 
Kafur,  as  he  says  nothing  whatever  about  them. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  113 

The  religion  of  the  Jains  is  the  outcome  of  the  same  forms 
of  thought  as  Buddhism.  It  expresses  the  same  distaste  for 
life,  the  same  yearning  for  the  deliverance  of  the  soul  from 
the  vortex  of  endless  transmigrations.  But  the  Jains  reject 
the  doctrine  of  annihilation  or  Nirvana.  They  believe  that 
when  the  soul  has  been  liberated  from  the  trammels  of  suc- 
cessive existences  it  begins  a  spiritual  life  in  some  indefinable 
mansion  of  the  blessed.  The  Jains  worship  the  saints  who 
have  attained  this  spiritual  life,  and  they  hold  twenty-four 
particular  saints  in  the  profoundest  veneration.  The  Jains 
are  divided,  like  the  Buddhists,  into  monks  and  laymen. 
Originally  some  of  the  sects  abandoned  all  clothing,  like  the 
Gymnosophists  of  old ;  but  the  Jain  monks,  in  general,  are 
not  only  clothed,  but  distinguished  as  the  "white-robed." 

The  lower  orders  of  the  people  of  India  are  slaves  to  idol- 
atry and  superstition,  but  modern  Brahmanism,  as  under- 
stood by  the  more  enlightened  classes,  is  of  a  more  intellec- 
tual character.  It  teaches  the  transmigrations  of  the  soul 
after  death,  but  it  also  teaches  the  deliverance  of  the  soul 
from  the  chain  of  transmigrations  by  good  works  or  by  faith. 
Deliverance  by  good  works  is  generally  associated  with  the 
worship  of  Siva.  Deliverance  by  faith  is  associated  with 
the  worship  of  Vishnu.  It  is  said  that  by  faith  in  Rama 
or  Krishna,  as  incarnations  of  Vishnu,  the  soul  may  be  deliv- 
ered from  the  vortex  of  transmigrations.  These  differences 
of  belief  have  originated  numerous  sects  and  controversies; 
yet  all  seem  to  be  agreed  that  the  deliverance  of  the  soul 
from  transmigrations  is  the  beginning  of  a  new  spiritual  life, 
and  that  the  emancipated  soul  is  either  absorbed  in  the  God- 
head, or  received  in  the  heaven  of  the  Supreme  Spirit. 

Hindu  traditions  tell  of  an  empire  named  Vijayanagar, 
which  was  associated  with  the  worship  of  Vishnu.  It  ex- 
tended over  the  whole  of  the  Peninsula  from  the  river  Kistna 
to  Cape  Comorin,  and  from  the  coast  of  Coromandel  to  that 
of  Malabar.  Some  traditions  say  that  it  also  included  the 
Dekhan  and  Hindustan.  European  travellers  speak  of  the 
same  empire  under  the  name  of  Narsinga;  they  describe  it 


114  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

as  spreading  over  the  Peninsula,  while  the  Dekhan  was  held 
by  the  Muhammadans. 

The  metropolis  of  this  empire  was  founded  about  the 
fourteenth  century,  or  some  earlier  date,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Tumbadra  river,  an  affluent  of  the  river  Kistna.  It 
was  known  as  the  city  of  Vijayanagar.  It  was  built  of 
stone  and  granite,  and  the  temples,  palaces,  and  fortifica- 
tions are  to  be  seen  to  this  day. 

The  Muhammadan  army  of  the  Dekhan  revolted,  as 
already  stated,  in  the  year  1350,  and  raised  up  a  line  of 
Sultans  of  their  own,  who  are  known  as  Bahmani  Sultans. 
These  Sultans  reigned  at  Kulbarga,1  and  soon  came  in  con- 
flict with  the  Hindu  empire  of  Vijayanagar.  The  wars 
which  ensued  between  Muhammadans  and  Hindus  are  the 
most  horrible  on  record,  and  were  often  waged  to  gratify 
the  paltry  passions  of  jealousy  or  revenge. 

Krishna  Rai,  Maharaja  of  Narsinga,  was  proud  and 
overbearirg,  corresponding  closely  to  Southey's  conception 
of  Kehama.  He  was  said  to  have  been  the  great  conqueror 
who  subdued  all  peninsular  India,  from  Malabar  to  Coro- 
mandel.  One  day  he  received  an  insulting  document  from 
the  Sultan  of  the  Dekhan.  The  Sultan  had  been  drinking 
wine  in  his  palace,  and  listening  to  flattering  songs  in  praise 
of  kings.  In  the  pride  of  his  heart  he  gave  the  musicians 
an  order  for  the  payment  of  money  on  the  Hindu  treasury 
at  Vijayanagar. 

In  due  course  the  order  reached  the  Maharaja.  It 
amounted  to  a  demand  that  the  Maharaja  should  pay  the 
musicians  out  of  his  own  treasury  in  obedience  to  the  orders 
of  the  Sultan.  Krishna  Rai  was  enraged  at  the  insult.  He 
ordered  the  messenger  to  be  led  through  the  streets  of  Vi- 
jayanagar with  every  mark  of  contempt.  He  resolved  to 
wipe  out  the  insult  with  blood  and  slaughter.  He  crossed 
the  river  Tumbadra  with  his  army,  captured  one  of  the  fron- 


1  The  city  is  situated  in  the  Nizam's  territories,  about  150  miles  west  of 
Hyderabad.     It  is  now  a  railway  station. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA 


THE  DEKHAN  &  PENINSULA 


116  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

tier  fortresses  belonging  to  the  Sultan,  and  slaughtered  the 
garrison  almost  to  a  man. 

The  Sultan  was  enraged  in  his  turn.  He  entered  the 
mosque  in  his  city  of  Kulbarga,  and  swore  upon  the  Koran 
that  he  would  not  sheathe  his  sword  until  he  had  slain  a 
hundred  thousand  idolaters.  He  crossed  the  river  Tum- 
badra  with  his  army,  and  began  a  horrible  massacre  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  until,  it  is  said,  he  had  completed  the 
tale  of  slaughter.  At  last  the  Brahmans  declared  that 
Krishna  Rai  had  offended  the  gods,  and  they  compelled 
him  to  sue  for  terms.  The  Sultan  demanded  that  the  Ma- 
haraja should  pay  the  musicians,  and  Krishna  Rai  was  bound 
to  obey.  This  simple  concession  brought  the  war  to  a  close. 
But  the  Sultan  and  the  Maharaja  were  alike  horror-stricken 
at  the  bloodshed,  and  it  was  agreed  that  for  the  future  none 
should  be  slain  in  war  except  the  soldiers  that  were  fighting 
in  the  field. 

In  1400  there  was  a  Maharaja  named  Deva  Rai ;  he  in- 
vaded the  Sultan's  territories  and  encamped  his  army  on  the 
bank  of  the  Kistna.  The  Sultan  was  afraid  to  cross  the  river 
in  the  face  of  the  Hindu  host.  At  this  crisis  eight  men  offered 
to  go  and  assassinate  either  Deva  Rai  or  his  eldest  son.  The 
Sultan  gave  his  consent  to  the  proposed  assassination.  The 
men  crossed  the  river  and  made  friends  with  some  dancing- 
girls  who  were  going  that  night  to  perform  before  the  eldest 
son  of  Deva  Rai. 

The  dances  in  Southern  India  often  represent  battles.  The 
performers  appear  with  sticks  or  weapons  in  their  hands,  and 
sing  and  dance,  strike  their  sticks  or  brandish  their  weapons, 
while  leaping,  fencing,  and  indulging  in  other  mad  gestures. 
Delia  Valle  describes  a  performance  in  which  the  master  of 
the  troop  appeared  among  the  girls  with  a  naked  poniard, 
and  pretended  to  slaughter  them. 

The  son  of  Deva  Rai  entertained  his  officers  in  a  large 
pavilion.  There  was  feasting  and  drinking,  while  the 
dancers  began  to  perform  in  their  usual  fashion.  After 
a  while  the  men  from  the  Sultan's  camp  appeared  among 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  117 

the  girls  in  the  guise  of  dancers,  with  naked  daggers  in 
their  hands.  The  revelry  was  at  its  height ;  the  prince  and 
his  guests  were  drunk  with  wine,  when  suddenly  the  prince 
was  stabbed  to  the  heart,  with  many  of  his  chief  men.  The 
lights  were  put  out,  and  the  assassins  escaped  in  the  uproar. 

The  Hindu  camp  was  thrown  into  a  panic,  which  lasted 
all  night;  every  man  was  afraid  of  his  neighbor.  Amid  the 
darkness  the  Sultan  crossed  the  river  and  fell  upon  the  ter- 
ror-stricken army.  The  massacre  which  followed  may  be 
left  to  the  imagination.  Deva  Rai  was  paralyzed.  At  last 
he  made  over  large  treasures  to  the  Sultan,  and  pledged 
himself  to  send  a  yearly  tribute  to  Kulbarga. 

Years  passed  away,  and  the  same  Sultan  and  same  Ma- 
haraja engaged  in  another  war;  but  this  time  it  was  brought 
to  a  close  by  a  marriage.  The  Sultan  married  the  daughter 
of  Deva  Rai.  The  marriage  feast  continued  forty  days,  and 
was  the  great  event  of  the  time.  The  Muhammadan  army 
was  encamped  four  miles  from  the  city  of  Vijayanagar.  The 
road  between  the  city  and  the  camp  was  converted  into  a 
street,  and  lined  on  either  side  with  shops  and  booths.  All 
comers  took  what  they  pleased  as  a  free  gift.  Provisions 
and  sweetmeats,  flowers  and  perfumes,  fruits  and  choice 
drinks,  were  open  to  all.  Meanwhile  conjurers,  play- 
actors, snake-charmers,  dancing-girls  and  performers,  per- 
formed before  the  multitude  from  day  to  day. 

When  the  marriage  rites  were  over,  the  street  was  cov- 
ered with  carpets,  and  the  princess  was  carried  with  great 
pomp  from  the  palace  of  the  Maharaja  to  the  pavilion  of  the 
Sultan.  After  some  days  the  bridegroom  and  bride  paid  a 
visit  to  the  Maharaja.  All  the  chief  officers  of  the  Sultan 
went  in  procession  in  gorgeous  array;  music  was  playing, 
banners  were  flying,  and  beautiful  children  were  scattering 
flowers  of  gold  and  silver.  The  Sultan  was  feasted  for  three 
days  by  the  Maharaja,  and  then  took  his  leave. 

The  parting  was  unpropitious  between  the  Sultan  and  his 
father-in-law.  The  Maharaja  accompanied  his  son-in-law 
half-way  to  the  camp,  but  then  returned  to  the  city.  The 


118  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

Sultan  was  offended  because  the  Maharaja  had  not  gone  the 
whole  way  to  the  camp;  and  he  nursed  up  the  secret  in  his 
heart.  Ten  years  afterward  he  renewed  the  war  to  avenge 
the  affront.  In  this  war  he  was  utterly  defeated  by  the 
Maharaja,  and  died  of  grief  and  mortification. 

About  1500  the  Bahmani  empire  was  dismembered,  and 
formed  into  five  separate  kingdoms,  under  different  Sultans. 
The  Dekhan  at  this  period  might  be  described  as  a  square, 
having  a  little  kingdom  in  the  centre,  and  a  large  kingdom 
at  each  of  the  four  angles.  Bidur  was  the  centre.  North- 
ward of  Bidur  was  Ahmadnagar  and  Berar;  southward  of 
Bidur  was  Bijapur  and  Golkonda. 

The  division  of  the  Bahmani  empire  weakened  the  Mu- 
hammadan  dominion  in  the  Dekhan.  Ahmadnagar,  Berar, 
and  Bidur  were  far  away  to  the  north,  and  had  little  to  fear 
from  the  Hindu  power  of  Vijayanagar.  But  Bijapur  and 
Golkonda  were  on  the  border,  and  not  strong  enough  of 
themselves  to  withstand  the  collected  force  of  the  Hindu 
empire.  To  make  matters  worse,  the  Sultans  of  the  Dek- 
han quarrelled  among  themselves,  and  were  at  war  with 
each  other,  when  they  ought  to  have  united  their  forces 
against  their  southern  neighbor. 

But  for  some  years  there  was  nothing  to  fear  from  Vija- 
yanagar. The  Hindu  court  was  distracted  by  a  series  of 
treacheries,  assassinations,  and  butcheries,  equally  revolting 
and  bewildering.  It  would  be  tedious  to  unravel  the  story. 
A  plain  narrative  of  the  progress  of  events  will  suffice  to 
show  why  the  Hindus  of  the  Peninsula  were  forced  to  keep 
the  peace  toward  the  Muhammadans  of  the  Dekhan. 

The  atrocities  at  the  court  of  Vijayanagar  began  with  an 
intrigue,  which  has  always  been  common  in  Oriental  courts. 
It  was  an  intrigue  for  the  transfer  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Raj  from  the  family  of  the  Maharaja  to  the  family  of  the 
minister.  It  has  been  generally  carried  out  by  the  removal 
of  the  males  of  the  reigning  family,  and  the  marriage  of  the 
minister's  son  to  one  or  more  of  the  princesses,  in  order  to 
give  to  the  son  of  the  minister  a  show  of  right  to  the  throne. 


MUHAMMAD  AN    INDIA  119 

Deva  Rai,  Maharaja  of  Narsinga,  died,  leaving  an  infant 
son.  The  infant  was  placed  upon  the  throne,  while  the  min- 
ister conducted  the  government  in  the  capacity  of  regent  or 
guardian.  "When  the  infant  reached  his  majority,  he  was 
murdered,  and  another  infant  was  placed  upon  the  throne. 
Three  infants  reigned  in  succession,  and  were  murdered  in 
like  manner. 

Meanwhile  the  minister,  Timma,  brought  about  a  mar- 
riage between  his  son  Ram  Rai  and  a  granddaughter  of 
Deva  Rai.  When  the  third  infant  was  murdered,  Ram  Rai 
was  proclaimed  Maharaja,  and  all  the  males  of  the  royal 
family  were  put  to  death,  with  two  exceptions.  One  was 
a  half-witted  man  named  Termal  Rai;  the  other  was  an 
infant  belonging  to  the  female  branch  of  the  family. 

Ram  Rai  was  accepted  as  Maharaja  without  opposition; 
but  his  pride  and  arrogance  soon  created  enemies.  The  old 
nobles  of  the  empire  refused  to  submit  to  the  insolence  of  a 
usurper,  and  proceeded  to  the  provinces  and  raised  a  rebel- 
lion. Ram  Rai  took  the  field  against  the  rebels,  leaving  his 
treasures  in  the  charge  of  a  trusted  slave.  The  slave  was 
a  favorite  who  had  risen  to  high  offices,  but  his  head  was 
turned  by  the  treasures.  The  sight  of  the  gold  is  said  to 
have  driven  him  mad,  and  stirred  him  up  to  desperate  ac- 
tions. He  plotted  a  conspiracy  with  the  half-witted  Termal 
Rai.  He  placed  the  infant  of  the  female  line  on  the  throne 
of  Vijayanagar,  and  assumed  the  post  of  minister.  The 
rebel  nobles  rallied  round  the  infant  representative  of  the 
royal  house.  They  marched  on  to  the  capital.  Ram  Rai 
saw  that  his  cause  was  lost,  and  retired  to  his  own  estates 
for  security. 

But  Termal  Rai  was  infected  with  the  same  madness  as 
the  slave.  He  murdered  the  infant  and  the  slave,  and  seized 
the  throne  as  Maharaja.  He  was  akin  to  the  old  dynasty, 
and  so  far  was  preferred  to  the  usurper,  Ram  Rai.  Not- 
withstanding his  fits  of  madness  he  was  acknowledged  sov» 
ereign  by  all  the  nobles  at  Vijayanagar. 

The  madness  of  Termal  Rai  soon  began  to  show  itself  in 


120  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

intolerable  ways.  He  exasperated  the  nobles  by  his  inso- 
lence; and  they  appealed  to  Ram  Rai  for  deliverance,  and 
joined  him  with  their  retainers.  An  overwhelming  army 
was  soon  marching  to  the  capital  with  Ram  Rai  at  its  head. 
Termal  Rai  was  seized  with  terror.  In  sheer  desperation  he 
called  in  the  help  of  the  Muhammadans.  He  sent  messen- 
gers to  Bijapur,  promising  to  become  the  vassal  of  the  Sul- 
tan, if  the  Sultan  would  only  protect  him  against  his  revolted 
subjects.  The  Sultan,  nothing  loth,  marched  an  army  to 
Vijayanagar;  he  was  admitted  into  the  city,  conducted  to 
the  palace,  and  placed  upon  the  throne.  To  crown  all,  Ter- 
mal Rai  did  homage  before  the  Sultan,  and  acknowledged 
him  as  his  suzerain  and  protector. 

This  sudden  revolution  sent  a  thrill  through  the  Penin- 
sula. The  Hindus  were  horror-stricken.  They  saw  to  their 
dismay  that  a  mad  Maharaja  had  made  over  his  throne  and 
empire  to  the  Muhammadans ;  that  their  metropolis  was  oc- 
cupied by  an  army  of  Turks  and  other  foreigners,  who  had 
desolated  their  country  in  days  gone  by,  destroyed  temples, 
broken  down  their  idols,  and  filled  the  land  with  bloodshed 
and  terror. 

Meanwhile  Ram  Rai  and  the  nobles  had  recourse  to  guile. 
They  promised  to  become  reconciled  to  Termal  Rai  if  he 
would  only  send  away  the  Muhammadans.  They  swore  to 
become  his  faithful  subjects  for  life,  if  he  would  only  get 
rid  of  the  intruders.  They  declared  that  the  presence  of  the 
Muhammadans  polluted  the  temples  and  angered  the  gods; 
and  that  prayers  and  worship  were  of  no  avail  so  long  as 
the  enemies  of  the  gods  remained  in  the  land. 

By  this  time  Termal  Rai  had  grown  weary  of  his  new 
allies;  he  was,  in  fact,  heartily  sick  of  the  sight  of  the  Mu- 
hammadans. He  tried  to  persuade  the  Sultan  to  leave  Vija- 
yanagar and  return  to  Bijapur.  At  last  he  succeeded,  but 
not  until  he  had  bribed  the  Sultan  with  money  and  jewels  to 
the  value  of  two  millions  sterling. 

No  sooner  had  the  Muhammadans  crossed  the  Kistna 
river  than  Termal  Rai  found  that  he  was  betrayed.  Ram 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  121 

Rai  and  the  nobles  were  on  the  march  for  Vijayanagar  to 
deprive  him  of  his  throne  and  take  possession  of  his  empire. 
Tennal  Rai  played  out  the  remainder  of  his  part  like  a  des- 
perate lunatic.  He  put  out  the  eyes  of  the  horses  and  ele- 
phants in  the  royal  stables  and  cut  off  their  tails.  He  began 
to  destroy  the  precious  stones  in  the  treasury  by  crushing 
them  with  heavy  millstones.  At  last  he  heard  his  enemies 
breaking  into  the  palace,  and  fell  on  his  sword  and  perished 
on  the  spot. 

Ram  Rai  was  once  again  Maharaja  of  Narsinga.  He 
found  the  Sultans  of  the  Dekhan  at  war  against  each  other, 
and  soon  began  to  interfere  in  their  dissensions.  The  Sul- 
tans of  Bijapur  and  Golkonda  entreated  him  to  help  them 
hi  a  war  against  the  Sultan  of  Ahmadnagar,  and  Ram  Rai 
was  only  too  ready  to  interfere.  Thus  an  alliance  was 
formed  by  two  Sultans  with  a  Hindu  Maharaja  for  the 
overthrow  of  another  Sultan;  and  Ram  Rai  took  the  field 
in  Muhammadan  territory  in  concert  with  Muhammadan 
allies. 

The  Sultans  of  Bijapur  and  Golkonda  soon  repented  of 
their  unholy  league.  The  Muhammadans  of  India  were 
horrified  at  hearing  that  Muhammadan  Sultans  were  helped 
by  an  idolatrous  Maharaja  in  a  war  against  a  brother  Mu- 
hammadan. Moreover,  the  Hindu  soldiery  had  committed 
enormous  sacrilege  in  Muhammadan  territory;  they  stabled 
their  horses  in  mosques,  and  offered  sacrifices  to  their  idol 
gods  in  the  shrines  of  holy  men,  while  the  recreant  Sultans 
made  no  attempt  to  prevent  them. 

"When  the  war  was  over,  the  Sultans  found  that  the  alli- 
ance with  the  Hindu  Maharaja  was  not  to  be  endured.  Ram 
Rai  was  puffed  up  with  pride  and  vainglory ;  he  treated  the 
Sultans  as  his  vassals,  and  put  their  envoys  to  shame.  At 
last,  four  of  the  Sultans  banded  together  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  the  infidel  Maharaja.  They  laid  aside  all  quarrels; 
they  leagued  together  as  brother  Muhammadans,  to  be 
avenged  once  and  for  all  on  the  Maharaja  of  Vijayanagar. 

The  decisive  battle  was  fought  in  1565 ;  it  is  known  as 
X— 6  INDIA.    VOL.  I. 


122  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

the  battle  of  Talikota,  and  is  famous  alike  in  Muhammadan 
history  and  Hindu  legend.  The  four  Sultans  assembled  their 
armies  on  the  banks  of  the  Kistna.  Ram  Rai  was  filled  with 
wrath,  and  collected  together  all  his  horse,  foot,  and  ele- 
phants to  overwhelm  the  Muhammadans.  Both  armies  had 
cannon,  but  the  Muhammadans  had  the  better.  The  con- 
federate Sultans  guarded  their  front  with  a  line  of  cannon 
fastened  together  with  ropes  and  chains.  The  Hindus 
guarded  their  front  with  war  elephants  as  well  as  cannon ; 
and  through  these  elephants  they  lost  the  day. 

The  Hindus  advanced  bravely  to  battle,  with  songs  and 
dances  after  the  old  Telinga  fashion.  They  began  the  battle 
with  shot  and  rockets,  and  drove  back  the  Muhammadan 
wings.  But  the  Muhammadan  centre  was  unbroken,  and 
began  to  open  fire.  The  Muhammadan  gunners  had  loaded 
their  cannon  with  bags  of  copper  money.  The  Hindus  were 
slaughtered  in  heaps  by  the  fiery  storm.  At  this  moment  a 
war  elephant  ran  madly  about,  and  overturned  the  litter  of 
Ram  Rai.  The  Muhammadan  gunners  seized  the  Maharaja 
as  their  prisoner,  and  beheaded  him  on  the  spot ;  and  then 
fixed  the  bleeding  head  upon  a  spear,  and  paraded  it  before 
the  contending  armies. 

The  death  of  the  Maharaja  brought  the  battle  to  a  close. 
The  Hindus  fled  like  sheep  when  they  beheld  his  head  upon 
a  spear.  The  Muhammadans  pursued  them  to  the  gates  of 
Vijayanagar;  they  took  possession  of  the  city,  and  found 
none  to  oppose  them.  The  metropolis  of  the  last  of  the  great 
Hindu  empires  was  at  their  mercy ;  and  six  months  are  said 
to  have  been  spent  in  the  work  of  plunder. 

Two  years  afterward  a  European  traveller,  named  Csesar 
Frederic,  visited  the  city  of  Vijayanagar ;  he  found  the  houses 
standing,  but  the  inhabitants  had  vanished  from  the  spot. 
The  whole  country  round  about  was  infested  with  thieves. 
He  stayed  six  months  at  Vijayanagar  out  of  fear  of  the 
thieves;  and  when  at  last  he  set  out  for  Goa  he  was  every 
day  attacked  by  robbers,  and  nearly  every  day  compelled  to 
pay  a  ransom. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  123 

The  empire  of  Vijayanagar  was  broken  up  by  the  battle 
of  Talikota,  but  it  was  not  conquered  by  the  Sultans.  The 
court  removed  to  Pennakonda,  eight  days'  journey  to  the 
south ;  but  the  successor  of  Ram  Rai  was  little  better  than 
an  exile,  and  his  sovereignty  soon  dwindled  away.  The 
provinces  became  kingdoms.  The  Naiks,  or  deputies  of  the 
Maharaja,  who  had  ruled  as  Viceroys,  soon  began  to  reign 
as  Rajas;  they  ceased  to  pay  tribute  to  the  exiled  Maharaja, 
and  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  generations  the  descendants 
of  Ram  Rai  possessed  nothing  but  an  empty  name. 

The  Hindu  empire  of  Vijayanagar  was  of  the  same  type 
as  that  of  Magadha,  but  in  both  there  was  a  religious  antag- 
onism in  the  background.  Under  Asoka  the  Brahmanical 
worship  of  the  gods  faded  away  from  Hindustan,  and  Bud- 
dhism became  a  state  religion.  Under  Krishna  Rai,  Deva 
Rai,  and  Ram  Rai,  the  teachings  of  Buddhist  and  Jain  were 
denied  or  ignored,  and  the  Brahmanical  worship  of  the  gods 
was  restored  from  the  Kistna  river  to  Cape  Comorin.  The 
story  of  these  religious  revolutions  has  yet  to  be  deciphered 
from  withering  palm-leaves  and  mouldering  inscriptions; 
but  enough  has  been  revealed  to  show  that  amid  the  jars 
and  conflicts  of  rival  creeds  sparks  of  divine  truth  have  not 
been  altogether  wanting ;  and  the  day  may  yet  dawn  when 
Brahmans  will  confess  that  without  goodness  and  purity  of 
the  heart  the  worship  of  the  gods  is  of  no  avail,  while  Jains 
may  learn  that  the  true  spirit  of  holiness  to  which  they 
aspire  is  the  outcome  of  Deity  alone. 


124  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 


CHAPTER   III 
PORTUGUESE  EMPIRE— MALABAR 

A.D.   1498    TO  1625 

IN  1498,  sixty-seven  years  before  the  battle  of  Talikota, 
ships  from  Portugal  made  their  first  appearance  in  the 
Indian  seas,  and  anchored  off  the  coast  of  Malabar. 
The  whole  Indian  continent  was  in  a  state  of  unrest.  Afghan 
chiefs  were  invading  the  Punjab,  and  devastating  Hindustan 
from  the  banks  of  the  Indus  to  the  mouths  of  the  Ganges. 
The  Bahmani  empire  of  the  Dekhan  was  divided  against  it- 
self, and  splitting  into  five  kingdoms  under  five  independent 
Sultans.  The  empire  of  Vijayanagar,  in  the  Peninsula,  was 
distracted  with  revolts,  treacheries,  and  assassinations,  which 
accompanied  the  transfer  of  the  sovereignty  from  the  family 
of  the  Maharaja  to  the  family  of  the  minister.  But  the 
Portuguese  knew  nothing  of  these  revolutions.  They  saw 
only  the  coast  of  Malabar  and  the  purple  heights  of  the 
Western  Ghats.  As  far  as  they  were  concerned,  the  region 
beyond  the  mountains  was  an  unknown  world. 

The  western  coast,  commonly  called  the  coast  of  Malabar, 
must  always  have  been  the  first  land  in  India  which  met  the 
eyes  of  European  discoverers.  PHny  tells  of  the  voyages  of 
Roman  merchants  from  Egypt  to  Malabar,  which  occupied 
seventy  days.  The  Roman  ships  were  manned  with  archers 
to  keep  off  the  Malabar  pirates.  In  the  fifteenth  century 
the  pirates  were  equally  troublesome,  although  few  probably 
would  have  dared  to  encounter  the  cannon  of  the  Portuguese. l 

1  Pliny  does  not  call  the  western  coast  by  the  name  of  Malabar ;  but  there 
is  no  question  about  its  identity.  He  speaks  of  Barace,  the  modern  Baroche,  as 
the  most  convenient  port;  and  a  glance  at  a  map  of  India  will  show  that  the 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  125 

While  the  western  coast  of  India  has  been  open  to  the 
Indian  Ocean,  it  has  been  more  or  less  shut  out  from  the 
empires  of  the  Dekhan  and  Peninsula.  A  mountain  chain 
runs  southward  from  the  Vindhya  mountains  to  Cape  Co- 
morin,  enclosing  a  long  and  narrow  strip  of  territory  toward 
the  sea,  and  walling  it  off  from  the  eastern  plains.  This 
chain  is  known  in  India  as  the  "Western  Ghats;  it  might 
be  better  described  to  European  readers  as  the  Indian 
Apennines. 

The  term  Malabar  is  properly  restricted  to  the  southern 
portion  of  this  coast  territory.  The  region  between  the  sea 
and  the  Ghats,  from  the  Nerbudda  river  to  Cape  Comorin, 
is  properly  divided  into  three  sections ;  namely,  Konkan  on 
the  north,  Kanara  in  the  centre,  and  Malabar  on  the  south. 
It  will  be  seen  hereafter  that  each  of  these  sections  has  a 
history  of  its  own. 

Malabar  proper  extended  from  Cape  Comorin  northward 
to  the  port  of  Cannanore.  *  It  was  the  first  Indian  country 
reached  by  the  Portuguese.  It  was  distributed  among  a 
number  of  petty  Rajas,  known  in  tradition  as  the  twelve 
kings  of  Malabar.8  They  were  black  barbarians  more  or 
less  under  the  influence  of  Brahmans,  and  ready  to  share 
the  profits  of  freebooters,  pirates,  or  traders.  They  and 
their  dependents  formed  a  military  class,  devoted  to  arms, 
and  living  among  an  agricultural  people  of  an  inferior  race. 
They  were  in  fact  a  hereditary  caste  known  as  Nairs ;  and 
may  be  described  as  Rajputs  in  the  rough.  They  wore  cloths 
hanging  from  their  girdles,  and  carried  swords  and  bucklers; 


port  of  Baroche,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nerbudda  river,  would  be  the  most  con- 
venient shelter  for  ships  coming  from  Egypt.  Again,  the  pepper  of  Cochin,  to- 
ward the  southern  extremity  of  the  coast,  has  been  famous  for  ages;  and  Pliny 
tells  us  that  the  pepper  of  Cothinara  was  brought  to  Barace  in  canoes. 

Two  important  marts  on  the  western  coast  are  mentioned  by  Ptolemy,  namely, 
Plithana  and  Tagara.  Plithana  has  been  identified  with  Paitan,  the  capital  of 
Salivahana  on  the  river  Godavari.  The  name  of  Tagara  still  lingers  in  that 
of  Deoghur,  whither  Muhammad  Tughlak  sought  to  remove  his  capital. 

1  Sometimes  it  was  advanced  as  far  north  as  Mangalore ;  but  the  matter  la 
of  no  moment. 

s  There  were  thirteen  in  all,  including  the  Zamorin  of  Calicut. 


126  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

but  the  Rajas  decorated  themselves  with  gold  and  jewels. 
The  twelve  Rajas  of  Malabar  owed  allegiance  to  an  emperor 
who  reigned  at  Calicut,  and  was  known  as  the  Zamorin.  At 
times  they  may  have  paid  tribute  to  the  Maharaja  of  Vija- 
yanagar;1  but  otherwise  they  maintained  a  political  inde- 
pendence. 

Malabar  has  always  been  famous  for  pepper  and  spices. 
The  different  Rajas  held  a  monopoly  of  these  commodities. 
They  either  supplied  cargoes,  or  levied  duties  on  all  sales. 
The  trade  was  in  the  hands  of  Arab  Muhammadans  who 
were  called  Moors,  and  had  carried  it  on  for  centuries. 
They  shipped  Indian  commodities  and  Indian  pilgrims  to 
the  Red  Sea.  The  pilgrims  were  landed  at  Jedda,  and  pro- 
ceeded through  the  desert  to  the  holy  places  at  Mecca  and 
Medina.  The  goods  were  landed  at  Suez,  and  carried  on  the 
backs  of  camels  through  Egypt  to  Alexandria,  where  they 
were  again  shipped  by  the  merchants  of  Venice  and  Genoa, 
and  conveyed  to  the  different  ports  of  the  Mediterranean. 

The  first  Portuguese  fleet  that  reached  India  consisted  of 
three  ships  under  the  command  of  Vasco  de  Gama.  The 
voyagers  left  Lisbon  on  the  8th  of  July,  1497,  like  an  army 
of  martyrs.  Every  man  went  to  confession  and  received 
absolution.  The  monks  of  Our  Lady  of  Bethlehem  walked 
to  the  ships  in  solemn  procession,  and  offered  up  prayers  for 
the  success  of  the  voyage. 

It  is  needless  to  dwell  on  the  perils  and  privations  of  the 
expedition.  The  voyagers  rounded  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
and  steered  boldly  across  the  Indian  Ocean  toward  the  coast 
of  Malabar.  On  the  28th  of  May,  1498,  the  fleet  anchored 
off  Calicut,  the  residence  of  the  Zamorin;8  and  Vasco  de 
Gama  sent  a  message  on  shore,  announcing  his  arrival  as 


1  In  this  little  empire  of  Malabar  there  are  traces  of  a  constitution.  Each 
state  is  said  to  have  sent  a  representative  to  the  court  of  the  Zamorin  at  Calicut ; 
and  their  representatives  formed  a  council,  and  caused  much  turmoil  by  their 
jealousies  and  rivalries. 

s  Calicut  is  about  250  miles  to  the  northward  of  Cape  Comoriu,  and  about  100 
miles  to  the  north  of  Cochin. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  127 

an  ambassador  from  the  King  of  Portugal,  with  a  letter  and 
presents  for  the  Zamorin. 

The  Portuguese  ambassador  was  soon  invited  to  an  audi- 
ence. Vasco  de  Gama  landed  at  Calicut  with  twelve  of  his 
officers.  In  the  first  instance  the  party  were  carried  in  palan- 
quins to  a  pagoda,  to  be  purified  and  perfumed.  They  were 
received  by  four  Malabar  Brahmans,  naked  to  the  waist, 
who  sprinkled  them  with  scented  water,  and  presented  them 
with  a  sweet-smelling  paste  made  of  sandal-wood.  The 
temple  was  dedicated  to  the  goddess  Mariamma.  The  Port- 
uguese saw  the  statue  of  a  woman,  and  asked  the  name  of 
the  goddess;  the  Malabars  cried  out  "Mari,  Mari."  The 
Portuguese  confounded  the  name  with  that  of  the  Virgin 
Mary;  and  prostrated  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  goddess 
before  they  discovered  their  folly. 

Vasco  de  Gama  and  his  retinue  were  next  conducted  to 
the  palace  of  the  Zamorin.  It  was  built  of  mud,  but  was 
pleasantly  situated  amid  trees  and  gardens.  The  chief 
Brahman  led  the  ambassador  into  the  audience-hall.  The 
Zamorin  was  seated  on  a  couch  of  silk,  while  a  grave  official 
stood  by  his  side  holding  a  golden  plate  filled  with  betel. 
The  Zamorin  was  arrayed  in  white  cotton,  flowered  with 
gold.1  He  wore  jewels  in  his  ears,  bracelets  on  his  arms, 
bangles  on  his  legs,  and  was  crowned  with  a  diadem  of 
pearls.  He  assumed  the  grave,  stolid  demeanor  which  east- 
ern princes  display  under  like  circumstances;  but  the  letter 
and  presents  were  received,  and  the  ambassador  was  prom- 
ised a  speedy  answer. 

The  Muhammadan  traders  at  Calicut  soon  learned  al} 
that  was  going  on.  They  knew  that  the  Portuguese  were 
their  enemies  in  religion,  and  likely  to  be  their  rivals  in 
trade.  They  bribed  the  officials  of  the  Zamorin.  They 
whispered  that  the  Portuguese  were  not  ambassadors;  that 


1  This  simple  fact  has  a  significance.  It  shows  that  the  audience  was  re- 
garded as  a  great  State  ceremony.  On  such  occasions  the  Zamorin  wore  a  white 
vestment,  but  never  otherwise.  None  of  hia  Nairs  were  allowed  to  wear  a  vest- 
ment at  any  time. 


128  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

the  presents  were  not  such  as  a  king  would  send,  or  the 
Zamorin  could  receive ;  that  the  so-called  ambassadors  were 
dangerous  pirates  and  kidnappers,  who  had  already  com- 
mitted outrages  on  the  coast  of  Africa. 

Vasco  de  Gama  soon  saw  that  the  Moors  were  bent  on 
mischief.  He  had  landed  his  goods,  and  the  Zamorin  gave 
him  a  house ;  but  the  factor  placed  in  the  house  could  neither 
sell  nor  buy,  and  was  soon  treated  as  a  prisoner. 

Vasco  de  Gama  seized  some  fishermen  by  way  of  repri- 
sals. The  Zamorin  was  alarmed,  and  the  factor  was  re- 
leased. The  ambassador  then  released  most  of  the  fisher- 
men, but  kept  back  a  few  in  order  to  carry  them  to  Portugal. 
This  last  proceeding  awakened  the  suspicions  of  the  natives. 
They  believed  the  story  of  the  Moors  that  the  Portuguese 
were  pirates  and  slave-dealers.  The  alarm  spread  along  the 
coast,  and  ships  began  to  assemble  at  the  neighboring  ports 
for  the  destruction  of  the  strangers.  Vasco  de  Gama  found 
that  the  country  was  against  him.  He  left  Calicut  with  his 
ships,  steered  out  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  returned  to 
Portugal  by  the  way  he  came. 

The  King  of  Portugal  next  sent  a  fleet  of  thirteen  ships 
with  the  fishermen  on  board,  under  the  command  of  Alvarez 
Cabral.  More  than  half  the  ships  foundered  during  the  voy- 
age, and  only  six  anchored  off  Calicut.  The  fishermen  were 
put  on  shore,  and  left  to  tell  their  own  story.  The  Zamorin 
became  better  disposed  toward  the  Portuguese.  He  again 
made  over  a  house  at  Calicut;  and  a  factor  was  placed  in 
the  house  with  goods  and  money  under  the  protection  of 
sixty  chosen  Portuguese. 

But  the  Moors  were  soon  at  their  old  tricks.  The  Portu- 
guese could  not  obtain  a  cargo ;  and  the  few  goods  they  were 
permitted  to  buy  were  purchased  at  very  advanced  rates. 
All  this  while  they  saw  that  the  Moors  were  procuring  car- 
goes with  the  utmost  ease,  and  loading  their  own  ships  very 
rapidly.  The  Portuguese  admiral  was  so  exasperated  that 
he  boarded  a  Moorish  vessel,  and  transferred  the  cargo  to 
his  own  ship. 


MUHAMMAD  AN    INDIA  129 

This  violent  proceeding  stirred  up  the  Nairs.  The  cry 
went  forth  that  the  Portuguese  were  pirates.  All  the  Nairs 
in  Calicut  gathered  round  the  factory,  and  assailed  the  in- 
mates with  darts  and  javelins.  The  Portuguese  fought  for 
their  lives,  but  were  overwhelmed  by  numbers.  At  last  a 
portion  of  the  wall  was  broken  down,  and  the  Nairs  rushed 
in.  Forty  Portuguese  were  slaughtered  on  the  spot;  the 
survivors  escaped  to  the  shore  and  swam  to  the  ships.  The 
factory  was  plundered  by  the  Nairs,  and  Cabral  was  told 
that  the  Zamorin  shared  the  plunder.  The  admiral  was  so 
angry  that  he  burned  fifteen  native  ships  that  were  lying 
in  the  harbor,  and  cannonaded  the  city  of  Calicut  for  two 
days. 

The  cannon  worked  a  great  change :  it  inspired  the  Rajas 
round  about  with  respect  for  the  Portuguese,  and  hopes  of 
revenge  against  the  Zamorin.  The  Raja  of  Cochin,  further 
south,  had  a  special  feud  against  the  Zamorin,  and  was 
anxious  for  the  friendship  of  the  powerful  strangers.  The 
Raja  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Portuguese,  supplied  them 
with  cargoes,  and  permitted  them  to  build  a  fort  within  his 
territory. 

But  nothing  could  allay  the  bitter  opposition  of  the  Moors. 
Hostilities  broke  out  between  Christians  and  Muhammadans 
which  might  be  described  as  war  to  the  knife.  Cruelties 
were  perpetrated  which  are  too  horrible  to  contemplate. 
One  atrocity  may  serve  as  a  type  of  the  whole.  A  Muham- 
madan  ship  was  captured  by  the  Portuguese,  while  carrying 
two  hundred  and  sixty  Mecca  pilgrims  to  the  Red  Sea. 
Twenty  children  were  saved  and  baptized;  the  remainder, 
to  the  number  of  two  hundred  and  forty  souls,  were  thrust 
into  the  hold  without  mercy,  and  the  ship  was  scuttled  and 
set  on  fire.1 

After  some  years  the  Sultan  of  Egypt  raised  a  turmoil. 
The  Portuguese  had  absorbed  the  Indian  trade,  and  diverted 

1  This  story,  and  many  other  tales  of  horror,  are  told  by  the  Portuguese  his- 
torian, Faria  y  Sousa,  who  was  Secretary  fo«  India  to  the  King  of  Spain  and 
Portugal. 


130  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

it  from  Egypt  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  The  Sultan 
was  angry  at  the  loss  of  transit  duties  in  Egypt,  and  he  was 
driven  to  fury  by  the  atrocities  of  the  Portuguese,  the  cap- 
ture of  Muhammadan  ships  and  drowning  of  Mecca  pilgrims. 
He  sent  letters  to  the  Pope  threatening  to  destroy  all  the  holy 
places  in  Palestine  unless  the  Portuguese  abandoned  the 
eastern  seas.  After  great  preparations  he  sent  a  fleet  down 
the  Red  Sea;  but  it  was  defeated  by  the  Portuguese  off 
Guzerat,  and  the  shipping  was  plundered  and  destroyed. 

The  real  founder  of  the  Portuguese  empire  in  the  east 
was  Alfonso  de  Albuquerque,  the  Viceroy  of  the  Portuguese 
possessions  in  India  from  1509  to  1515.  He  selected  the 
island  of  Goa,  nearly  half  way  down  the  western  coast  of 
India,  between  Konkan  and  Kanara,  to  be  the  metropolis 
of  the  Portuguese  empire,  and  the  emporium  of  eastern 
trade.  This  island  had  been  originally  a  nest  of  pirates, 
but  had  been  captured  and  cleared  by  a  Muhammadan  Sul- 
tan of  the  Dekhan.  Albuquerque  seized  and  conquered  the 
island,  and  founded  the  city  of  Goa,  which  was  destined  to 
become  the  Venice  of  the  east.  In  like  manner  he  founded 
the  city  of  Malacca  on  the  Malay  peninsula  opposite  the 
island  of  Sumatra.  Albuquerque  died  at  the  bar  of  Goa  in 
December,  1519,  at  the  age  of  sixty-three,  just  as  he  was 
about  to  return  to  his  native  land. 

Meanwhile  the  policy  pursued  by  the  Portuguese  at 
Cochin  was  repeated  by  the  Viceroy  of  Goa.  Permission 
was  obtained  to  build  forts  at  various  points  along  the  coast ; 
and  when  a  fort  was  defended  by  cannon,  and  manned  by 
Europeans,  it  was  impregnable  to  Asiatics.  A  Raja  or  a 
Sultan  might  repent  of  his  alliance  with  the  strangers,  and 
try  to  turn  them  out  of  the  fort,  but  the  task  was  beyond  his 
power.  In  this  manner  the  Portuguese  built  one  fort  at  Diu 
in  an  island  off  the  southern  coast  of  Guzerat;  another  at 
Bassein  in  Konkan  to  the  north  of  Bombay ;'  others  at  Chaul 

1  The  Portuguese  ultimately  built  a  fort  at  Bombay,  but  it  was  a  weak  affair ; 
and  Bombay  played  no  part  in  history  until  it  was  ceded  by  Spain  to  the  English 
in  1661,  as  the  dowry  of  the  Infanta  who  married  Charles  the  Second. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  131 

and  Dabul  in  Konkan  to  the  south  of  Bombay;  others  at 
Onore  and  Mangalore  in  Kanara;  while  another,  as  already 
seen,  was  built  at  Cochin,  in  Malabar.  Churches  and  houses 
were  built  within  these  forts;  priests  were  appointed,  and 
monasteries  were  often  endowed ;  and  Roman  Catholic  Chris- 
tianity began  to  make  a  stir  in  Western  India. 

In  1538  the  Viceroy  of  Goa  proposed  to  open  up  a  trade 
with  Bengal,  and  sent  a  Portuguese  mission  to  Chittagong. 
At  that  time  the  Sultan  of  Bengal  was  an  Arab  in  mortal 
fear  of  his  life;  and  he  ordered  the  strangers  to  be  sent  as 
prisoners  to  Gour.  The  orders  were  obeyed,  and  the  Portu- 
guese would  probably  have  been  murdered;  but  the  Sultan 
was  slain  by  an  Afghan,  and  the  prisoners  were  released  and 
permitted  to  return  to  Goa. 

According  to  the  Portuguese  historian,  the  government 
at  Bengal  was  at  this  period  of  the  worst  possible  kind.  A 
series  of  low-born  adventurers,  favorites  or  slaves,  arose  in 
turn,  murdered  the  reigning  Sultan,  and  obtained  the  king- 
dom. Sultan  after  Sultan  cut  his  way  to  the  throne  by 
treachery  and  assassination,  and,  after  a  brief  reign  of  self- 
indulgence  and  terror,  was  slaughtered  in  his  turn.  The 
new-comer  might  be  an  Arab,  or  an  Afghan,  or  even  a  black 
Abyssinian  slave;  but  the  people  of  Bengal  were  too  timid 
and  effeminate  to  throw  off  the  yoke,  or  even  to  interfere. 
If  the  intruder  held  the  throne  for  three  days,  the  population 
accepted  him  as  their  sovereign. 

About  this  time  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  once  again  played 
a  part  in  the  affairs  of  India.  The  Sultan  of  Guzerat  sent 
messengers  to  implore  the  Porte  to  help  him  to  drive  the 
Portuguese  out  of  Diu.  The  Porte  sent  an  armanent  from 
Egypt, '  to  capture  Diu,  but  the  expedition  proved  a  failure. 
No  Muhammadan  prince  would  join  the  Turks  except  the 
Sultan  of  Guzerat,  and  he  was  soon  tired  of  his  new  allies. 
The  Portuguese  garrison  at  Diu  fought  with  the  utmost 
bravery  and  repelled  every  assault.  At  last  the  Muham- 

1  The  Sultan  of  Turkey  conquered  Egypt  in  1517. 


132  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

madan  forces  united  in  a  general  charge,  and  were  re- 
pulsed with  great  slaughter.  But  the  Portuguese  were 
nearly  starved  out,  and  suffered  the  most  horrible  pri- 
vations. They  were  on  the  point  of  surrendering,  when 
the  Turkish  fleet  sailed  away  and  was  never  seen  again 
in  the  eastern  seas.  The  Sultan  of  Guzerat  had  got 
rid  of  his  Turkish  allies,  by  telling  them  that  a  great 
fleet  was  coming  out  from  Portugal  and  would  destroy 
them  all. 

The  news  of  the  repulse  of  the  Great  Turk  was  hailed  by 
the  Portuguese  nation  with  enthusiastic  joy.  The  com- 
mandant of  Diu  returned  to  Lisbon,  and  was  received  with 
acclamation.  All  the  nobles  thronged  to  the  Tagus  to  wel- 
come him.  All  the  foreign  ambassadors  strove  to  do  him 
honor.  The  French  ambassador  ordered  a  painting  to  be 
made  of  the  brave  man  who  had  defeated  the  Great  Turk 
in  the  Indian  seas. 

In  1545  there  was  another  war  about  Diu.  The  Portu- 
guese Viceroy  relieved  the  fort  in  person,  and  on  his  return 
to  Goa  was  received  with  the  honors  of  a  Roman  triumph. 
His  head  was  crowned  with  laurel,  and  he  was  accompanied 
through  the  streets  of  Goa  by  a  procession  of  prisoners  and 
captured  guns  and  arms.  Salutes  were  fired,  bands  of  music 
were  playing,  the  houses  were  adorned  with  silks,  and  fair 
women  threw  flowers  and  perfumes  from  the  verandas. 
When  the  Queen  of  Portugal  heard  the  story  she  declared 
that  the  Viceroy  had  conquered  like  a  Christian  and  tri- 
umphed like  a  pagan. 

A  picture  of  Goa  during  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century  is  furnished  by  a  Dutch  traveller  named  Linschoten. 
Goa  was  situated  on  the  northern  side  of  the  island,  facing 
an  arm  of  the  sea.  The  shore  was  covered  with  country- 
houses  and  gardens,  and  adorned  with  forts  and  churches. 
The  Viceroy's  palace  was  built  over  the  city  gate.  It  was 
a  splendid  building,  and  portraits  of  every  Viceroy  of  India 
were  hung  in  the  Council-hall.  Passing  through  the  gate- 
way, the  visitor  entered  a  fine  broad  street,  half  a  mile  long, 


MUHAMMAD  AN   INDIA  133 

leading  from  the  palace  to  a  church.  In  front  of  this  church 
was  the  Exchange. 

Every  morning,  except  Sundays  and  Saints'  days,  the 
Exchange  at  Goa  was  the  great  centre  of  attraction.  It 
began  at  sunrise,  and  was  generally  over  by  nine  o'clock. 
It  resembled  the  old  Fairs  of  Europe,  except  that  gentlemen 
of  noble  birth  bought  and  speculated  like  common  dealers. 
It  was  a  kind  of  auction  at  which  goods  were  sold  at  public 
outcry  by  men  specially  appointed.  Some  criers  ran  about, 
hung  with  costly  chains,  jewels,  pearls,  rings,  and  precious 
stones,  which  were  thus  offered  for  sale.  Others  disposed 
of  bales  of  damasks,  velvets,  silks,  satins,  spices,  drugs, 
pepper,  and  porcelain.  Others  sold  the  goods  of  deceased 
persons;  for  according  to  the  law  of  Goa,  whenever  a  man 
died,  from  the  Viceroy  downward,  his  goods  were  sold  at 
tho  Exchange  for  the  benefit  of  his  heirs.  Slaves  were  also 
sold,  male  and  female.  Men  were  bought  to  serve  as  menial 
servants ;  others  to  be  hired  out  to  different  masters.  Women 
slaves  were  taught  to  make  sweetmeats  and  confections,  or 
to  embroider  pocket-handkerchiefs;  and  the  youngest  and 
fairest  were  sent  into  the  streets  to  offer  such  commodities 
for  sale. 

The  social  life  at  Goa  was  not  healthy.  The  city  was 
often  overrun  by  Portuguese  adventurers,  who  came  out  to 
India  under  the  name  of  soldiers,  and  affected  to  be  nobles 
and  gentlemen.  These  men  were  often  required  to  garrison 
forts,  or  to  serve  as  soldiers  on  board  the  ships  in  different 
expeditions;  but  when  not  on  service  their  presence  was  an 
intolerable  evil.  They  were  often  reduced  to  poverty,  living 
ten  or  twelve  in  one  house,  with  perhaps  only  one  or  two 
suits  of  silk  clothes  among  them,  which  they  wore  in  turns. 
At  the  same  time  they  were  so  touchy  as  regards  etiquette, 
the  return  of  salutations,  and  other  points  of  honor,  that  they 
often  filled  the  city  with  brawls  and  bloodshed.  Their  disso- 
lute lives  led  to  other  disorders.  Portuguese  householders 
shut  up  their  wives  and  daughters  in  Oriental  seclusion ;  but 
this  only  aggravated  the  evil.  The  ladies  became  demoral- 


134  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

ized  by  their  female  slaves,  and  often  intrigued  with  the 
soldiers,  causing  more  jealousies  and  bloodshed,  as  well  as 
poisonings,  assassinations,  and  other  secret  crimes. 

Meanwhile  there  was  no  lack  of  wealth  at  Goa.  Trade 
was  the  main  business  of  the  city ;  and  the  arrival  and  de- 
parture of  ships  in  the  river  added  to  the  excitement  of  the 
daily  exchange.  Ventures  on  board  ships  were  exposed  to 
the  risks  of  capture  or  wreck,  but  the  profits  of  a  successful 
voyage  were  often  three  or  four  hundred  per  cent.  Again, 
profits  from  thirty  to  forty  per  cent  were  often  to  be  made 
by  money  -  changing  alone,  without  any  risk  whatever. 
Every  September,  Portuguese  ships  arrived  at  Goa,  and 
sought  to  exchange  their  reals  for  Persian  money  for  the 
purchase  of  pepper  and  spices  at  Cochin.  Every  April  the 
ships  went  to  China,  and  were  glad  to  give  Persian  money 
for  reals,  which  were  required  for  the  purchase  of  silks  and 
porcelain. 

During  the  sixteenth  century  the  Portuguese  monopolized 
the  whole  trade  between  Europe  and  the  east ;  and  a  large 
share  of  the  accumulated  wealth  was  spent  in  Goa.  The 
Viceroy  returned  to  Portugal  every  three  years  with  a 
splendid  fortune;  leaving  a  successor  to  amass  riches  in 
like  manner.  The  commandants  of  forts,  and  a  few  disap- 
pointed soldiers,  may  in  like  manner  have  returned  to  their 
native  country  after  a  term  of  years.  But  gentlemen  traders 
married  and  settled  in  Goa,  and  adopted  it  as  their  home. 
They  built  country-houses  with  secluded  gardens.  They 
made  splendid  shows  of  gold  and  silver  plate.  They  adorned 
their  wives  and  daughters  with  rings,  chains,  bracelets,  and 
jewels  of  every  description.  They  endowed  churches,  mon- 
asteries, colleges,  and  schools.  Missionaries  from  Goa, 
chiefly  Jesuits,  were  sent  out  to  convert,  not  only  the  na- 
tives of  the  surrounding  country,  but  the  people  of  remote 
regions,  such  as  those  of  China  and  Japan. 

The  Viceroy  and  Council  were  at  the  supreme  head  of 
affairs.  There  were  also  Secretariats,  a  Court  of  Chancery, 
and  other  public  officers.  A  large  ecclesiastical  authority 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  135 

was  exercised  by  the  Archbishop  and  his  Secretaries.  There 
was  an  Inquisition  with  authority  superior  to  that  of  the 
Archbishop;  and  religious  offenders  were  arrested,  impris- 
oned, condemned,  tortured  or  executed,  by  this  tribunal, 
without  any  control  whatever,  beyond  what  might  be  in- 
volved in  its  correspondence  with  Rome.  No  Hindu  rite 
was  permitted  within  the  island  of  Goa.  No  Muhammadan 
was  allowed  to  perform  his  devotions  in  public,  or  to  call 
believers  to  prayers.  But  otherwise  the  Inquisition  rarely 
interfered  with  Hindu  or  Muhammadan,  and  generally  con- 
fined its  attention  to  Portuguese  and  native  converts.  If 
once  a  native,  Hindu  or  Muhammadan,  embraced  Chris- 
tianity, he  was  a  slave  to  the  Inquisition,  and  was  punished 
for  acts  of  apostasy  as  if  he  had  committed  the  gravest 
crimes. 

Between  the  years  1623  and  1625,  a  Roman  Catholic  gen- 
tleman named  Pietro  della  Valle  visited  Goa.  He  has  left 
graphic  descriptions  of  the  country,  when  the  fortunes  of 
Goa  were  on  the  turn.  The  surroundings  were  still  as  im- 
posing as  ever.  As  Della  Valle  entered  the  arm  of  the  sea, 
known  as  the  river  of  Goa,  he  saw  a  beautiful  city  stretched 
out  on  his  right  hand.  The  churches  were  the  finest  build- 
ings in  Goa.  Many  belonged  to  religious  orders,  such  as  the 
Augustines,  Dominicans,  Franciscans,  Carmelites,  and  Jes- 
uits. Already,  however,  there  were  too  many  priests  in 
Goa,  and  half  the  number  would  have  sufficed  for  a  much 
larger  city. 

The  native  inhabitants  formed  the  bulk  of  the  population. 
They  were  a  black  generation,  mostly  slaves.  The  Portu- 
guese were  few  in  number,  and  had  lost  their  wealth  through 
the  invasions  of  the  Dutch  and  English.  But  they  were  very 
proud,  and  made  what  show  they  could,  for  all  wished  to  be 
accounted  gentlemen  and  soldiers. 

The  religious  processions  at  Goa  were  very  remarkable. 
Della  Valle  saw  a  procession  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  made 
by  the  whole  clergy,  with  a  greater  show  of  green  boughs 
than  clothes.  Mysteries  were  represented  by  persons  in  dis- 


136  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

guise,  accompanied  by  fictitious  animals,  dances,  and  mas- 
querades. Delia  Valle  remarked  that  in  Italy  such  scenes 
would  be  confined  to  villages,  and  would  not  have  been  wit- 
nessed in  great  cities. 

Subsequently  the  order  of  Carmelites  celebrated  the  canon- 
ization of  St.  Teresa.  Two  boys,  clad  as  couriers,  announced 
the  canonization  to  the  Viceroy  of  Goa  in  appropriate  verses, 
and  then  proclaimed  it  with  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  through 
the  streets  of  Goa.  At  night  there  were  displays  of  fire- 
works throughout  the  city;  and  all  the  Portuguese  gentle- 
men of  note  paraded  the  city  in  various  disguises,  after  the 
manner  of  a  masquerade. 

At  the  feast  of  John  the  Baptist,  the  Viceroy  and  other 
Portuguese  gentlemen  rode  through  the  streets  in  masquerad- 
ing habits,  but  without  masks.  They  next  attended  Mass, 
and  then  went  to  the  large  street  of  St.  Paul.  Many  com- 
panies of  Kanarese  Christian  soldiers  went  through  their 
exercises  in  this  street,  marching  past  with  ensigns,  drums, 
and  arms,  and  then  leaping  and  playing  along  the  street 
with  drawn  swords. 

Shortly  afterward  the  canonization  of  Ignatius  and 
Xavier  was  celebrated  by  the  Jesuits  of  the  college  of  St. 
Paul.  All  the  collegians  came  forth  in  a  great  cavalcade, 
divided  into  three  squadrons,  under  three  banners.  One 
squadron  represented  Europe,  the  second  Asia,  and  the 
third  Africa.  The  men  of  each  squadron  were  dressed  in 
the  costumes  of  the  nations  of  their  respective  continents. 
Before  the  cavalcade  went  a  chariot  of  clouds,  with  Fame 
on  the  top,  who  sounded  her  trumpet  to  the  accompaniment 
of  other  music,  and  proclaimed  the  canonization  of  the  two 
saints.  Two  other  chariots  followed ;  one  represented  Faith, 
or  the  Church ;  the  other  was  a  Mount  Parnassus,  carrying 
Apollo  and  the  Muses  as  representatives  of  the  sciences 
taught  in  the  college.  Five  great  pyramids,  covered  with 
pictures,  were  also  drawn  along  the  streets  on  wheels  by 
men  on  foot.  The  first  was  painted  with  all  the  martyrs 
of  the  order  of  the  Jesuits.  The  second  was  painted  with 


MUHAMMAD  AN   INDIA  137 

doctors  and  authors  belonging  to  the  same  order.  The  third 
was  painted  with  figures  of  every  nation  to  whom  the  Jesuits 
had  sent  missions,  and  thus  represented  the  various  languages 
in  which  the  Jesuits  preached  and  taught.  The  fourth  pyra- 
mid was  painted  with  devices  showing  the  provinces  of  the 
said  religion.  The  fifth  displayed  all  the  miracles  which  had 
been  performed  by  the  two  saints,  Ignatius  and  Xavier. 
These  pyramids  were  drawn  through  the  principal  streets, 
and  then  placed  as  monuments  in  different  parts  of  the 
city. 

There  was  no  city  in  the  world  where  there  were  so  many 
religious  processions  as  in  Goa.  Delia  Valle  remarked  that 
such  shows  were  right  and  proper  when  kept  within  bounds, 
but  in  Goa  they  were  much  too  frequent.  The  crowds  of 
monks  and  ecclesiastics  were  burdensome  to  the  state  and 
prejudicial  to  the  military.  Goa  was  a  city  bordering  on 
enemies ;  the  metropolis  of  a  kingdom  lying  in  the  midst  of 
barbarians.  Under  such  circumstances  the  utmost  attention 
should  have  been  given  to  fleets  and  armies. 

Delia  Valle  accompanied  a  Portuguese  ambassador  on  a 
mission  to  the  so-called  king  of  Kanara,  named  Venk-tapa 
Naik.  Sixty  years  had  passed  away  since  the  battle  of  Tali- 
kota  was  fought  in  1565.  The  predecessors  of  Venk-tapa 
had  been  Naiks  or  governors  of  the  province  of  Kanara  un- 
der the  old  Maharajas  of  Vijayanagar;  and  Venk-tapa  still 
retained  the  name  of  Naik,  although  he  ruled  Kanara  as  an 
independent  Raja,  and  added  to  his  dominions  by  the  con- 
quest of  less  powerful  neighbors. 

There  had  been  some  difficulty  between  the  Viceroy  of 
Goa  and  Venk-tapa  Naik,  which  the  embassy  was  intended 
to  clear  up.  The  Naik  had  been  drawn  into  hostilities  with 
the  Portuguese,  but  was  anxious  for  peace.  His  country 
produced  much  pepper,  and  the  Portuguese  were  accustomed 
to  buy  it,  but  they  had  not  come  for  the  pepper  of  the  cur- 
rent year,  and  they  had  not  paid  for  the  pepper  of  the  pre- 
vious year.  The  Portuguese  were  equally  anxious  to  keep 
on  good  terms  with  the  Naik,  for  their  cash  was  low,  and 


138  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

they  were  afraid  lest  the  Naik  should  sell  his  pepper  to  the 
English  or  Dutch. 

The  capital  of  Venk-tapa  Naik  was  at  Ikkeri,  a  city  in 
the  interior,  about  fifty  miles  from  Onore.  The  journey 
might  have  been  made  by  land,  but  the  Sultan  of  Bijapur 
was  in  possession  of  the  intervening  territory,  and  his  officers 
were  not  always  courteous  toward  the  Portuguese.  Accord- 
ingly it  was  determined  to  go  by  sea  to  the  Portuguese  port 
at  Onore,1  and  then  to  proceed  by  land  to  the  city  of  Ikkeri. 

Onore  was  a  type  of  a  Portuguese  settlement.  A  few  of 
the  Portuguese  dwelt  outside  the  fort,  where  there  was  a 
native  bazar.  But  the  commandant  and  all  the  married 
Portuguese  dwelt  inside  the  fort,  which  was  laid  out  in 
streets  of  houses  with  wells  and  gardens.  There  was  also 
a  piazza  within  the  fort,  which  would  contain  all  the  inhabi- 
tants in  the  event  of  a  siege. 

The  kingdom  of  Kanara  was  in  like  manner  a  type  of  a 
Hindu  Raj  in  Southern  India.  In  the  journey  to  Ikkeri 
Delia  Valle  climbed  the  Ghat.8  The  mountain  in  that  place 
was  not  so  high  as  the  Apennines,  and  the  ascent  was  easier, 
but  the  woods  were  more  dense.  On  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tain was  a  fortress  belonging  to  Venk-tapa  Naik,  and  a 
temple  to  the  god  Hanuman,  the  famous  monkey  who 
helped  Rama. 

The  city  of  Ikkeri  was  surrounded  by  three  lines  of  de- 
fences. The  two  outer  ones  were  mere  fences  of  bamboo, 
intended  to  keep  out  horse  and  foot.  The  third  enclosure 
was  a  wall,  but  weak  and  inconsiderable.  The  houses  were 
scattered  and  ill-built,  especially  outside  the  wall,  where  they 
were  diversified  with  groves  of  trees  and  ponds  of  water. 

After  a  day  or  two's  delay,  the  Portuguese  ambassador 
obtained  an  audience  with  Venk-tapa  Naik.  The  party  rode 
to  the  palace  in  procession,  accompanied  with  drums  and 


1  Onore  appears  in  modern  maps  under  the  name  of  Honahwar. 

2  The  ruins  of  Ikkeri  are  still  to  be  seen  in  "Western  Mysore,  about  eighteen 
miles  to  the  north  of  Bednore.     The  Raj  of  Kanara  appears  to  have  occupied  a 
considerable  area  in  Western  Mysore. 


MUHAMMAD  AN    INDIA  139 

music.  The  palace  stood  in  a  large  fortress,  environed  with 
a  ditch  and  some  badly  built  bastions.  Venk-tapa  Naik  re- 
ceived the  Portuguese  ambassador  and  party  in  a  small  court. 
He  was  seated  on  a  raised  pavement  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
court,  under  a  wooden  canopy  covered  with  gilding.  Several 
courtiers  stood  at  his  right  hand,  and  one  of  them  fanned  him 
to  drive  away  the  flies.  He  chewed  betel  leaves  throughout 
the  audience.  He  asked  the  ambassador  why  the  Portuguese 
ships  were  so  late  this  year.  The  ambassador  replied  in  a 
long  rodomontade.  A  Portuguese  fleet  was  coming  to  In- 
dia with  a  great  army.  The  King  of  Spain  and  Portugal  had 
formed  an  alliance  with  England.  Prince  Charles  of  Eng- 
land was  on  a  visit  to  the  court  of  Madrid.  To  this  he  added 
other  bits  of  news  which  could  have  but  little  interest  for 
the  Hindu  prince,  and  were  only  intended  to  glorify  the 
Portuguese. 

Delia  Valle  saw  other  sights  at  Ikkeri  which  are  common 
to  Hindu  cities  in  the  south.  There  were  companies  of  young 
girls  in  figured  silks  and  linen  jackets,  with  diadems  of  white 
and  yellow  flowers,  who  danced  in  circles  with  painted  sticks 
in  their  hands,  and  sang  songs  in  honor  of  then*  goddess. 
There  were  wooden  beams  set  up  with  ropes  and  hooks  on 
which  devotees  were  accustomed  to  swing  themselves  at 
certain  festivals.  There  were  large  chariots  in  which,  on 
certain  days,  the  gods  were  carried  in  grand  processions. 
There  were  Indian  friars  smeared  with  ashes,  known  as 
Jangamas,  who  led  the  lives  of  mendicants,  and  were  wor- 
shipped as  holy  men. 

One  night  Delia  Valle  met  a  procession  which  is  no  longer 
to  be  seen  in  India.  A  woman  had  lost  her  husband  and 
was  bent  on  burning  herself.  She  rode  on  horseback  with 
open  face,  holding  a  looking-glass  in  one  hand  and  a  lemon 
in  the  other.  She  went  along  singing  and  chanting  her 
farewell  to  the  world  with  such  passionate  language  as 
moved  all  who  heard  her.  She  was  followed  by  many  men 
and  women,  and  some  carried  an  umbrella  or  canopy  over 
her  to  do  her  honor.  Drums  were  sounded  before  her,  and 


140  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

she  never  ceased  to  accompany  the  noise  with  her  sad  songs. 
Delia  Valle  was  told  that  she  would  ride  in  procession  through 
the  streets  for  a  certain  number  of  days,  and  then  go  out  of 
the  city  and  be  burned  with  great  solemnities. 

At  Ikkeri  Delia  Valle  was  a  close  observer  of  Hindu 
worship.  There  were  several  temples  in  the  city,  but  the 
greatest  of  all  was  dedicated  to  the  god  Aghoresvara.1  The 
idol  was  in  the  form  of  a  man  with  one  head  and  sixteen 
arms. 

One  evening  tapers  were  lighted  in  all  the  temples  in 
Ikkeri.  A  great  noise  was  made  with  drums  and  pipes, 
while  priests  began  to  dance  before  the  gates  of  the  temples. 
Delia  Valle  went  off  to  the  temple  of  Aghoresvara.  The 
people  were  called  together  by  the  sound  of  trumpets.  The 
priests  formed  a  procession,  carrying  two  idols  in  a  palan- 
quin decked  with  flowers  and  ornaments.  The  procession 
was  accompanied  by  music,  torches,  lances,  streamers,  and 
umbrellas.  There  was  a  long  train  of  dancing-girls  two  by 
two,  decked  in  gold  and  jewels.  There  were  other  women, 
marching  on  either  side  of  the  palanquin,  carrying  little 
staves  with  long  white  horse-tails  with  which  they  fanned 
away  the  flies  from  the  idols.  Many  priests  accompanied 
the  idols.  In  this  manner  the  procession  entered  the  piazza 
of  the  temple,  and  made  a  large  ring  or  circle,  and  the  danc- 
ing began. 

Two  women,  from  either  side  of  the  circle,  advanced  three 
steps  forward  and  then  fell  three  steps  backward,  but  always 
with  their  faces  toward  the  idols ;  and  this  they  did  several 
times  by  way  of  saluting  the  idols.  Two  others  then  joined 
them,  and  after  that  two  others. 

After  the  salutations  were  over,  the  dancing  began  with 
leaping,  fencing,  and  many  mad  gestures.  When  the  danc- 
ing was  over,  the  procession  moved  outside  the  temple  round 
the  outer  enclosure,  halting  at  intervals  to  repeat  the  salu- 

1  The  ruins  of  this  temple  are  still  to  be  seen.  The  god  was  a  form  of  Esvara 
or  Siva;  also  known  as  Mahadeva,  or  the  "great  god."  The  idol  was  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Supreme  Being.  See  ante,  82,  84. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  141 

tations  and  dancing.  At  last  the  procession  re-entered  the 
temple  and  the  ceremonies  were  brought  to  a  close. 

The  next  night  was  the  new  moon.  All  the  temples  in 
Ikkeri  were  illuminated  with  candles  and  torches ;  so  were 
all  the  streets,  houses,  and  shops.  Every  temple  had  its 
idol,  and  in  some  temples  the  idol  was  a  serpent.  The  outer 
porches  were  illuminated  with  lights,  and  adorned  with  trans- 
parencies of  painted  horsemen,  elephants,  people  fighting,  and 
other  odd  figures.  A  great  concourse  of  men  and  women 
went  about  the  city  visiting  all  the  temples  in  Ikkeri.  Late 
at  night  Venk-tapa  came  to  the  temple  of  Aghoresvara  with 
his  two  nephews,1  attended  by  a  large  train  of  soldiers  and 
servants.  He  stayed  in  the  temple  for  about  an  hour,  dur- 
ing which  he  was  entertained  with  music  and  dancing,  and 
then  returned  to  his  palace. 

Delia  Valle  remarked  that  the  Hindu  worship  of  the  gods 
chiefly  consisted  in  music,  songs,  and  dances ;  and  in  serving 
the  idols  as  though  they  were  living  beings.  Thus  the  priests 
presented  the  idols  with  things  to  eat,  washed  them,  perfumed 
them,  gave  them  betel  leaves,  dyed  them  with  sandal,  and 
carried  them  abroad  in  processions.  Delia  Valle  was  un- 
doubtedly correct.  To  this  day  the  temple  services  in  the 
worship  of  Krishna,  Jagganath,  and  other  similar  idols,  is 
of  the  same  materialistic  character. 

Delia  Valle  left  Ikkeri  and  proceeded  to  the  Portuguese 
port  of  Mangalore.  He  was  anxious  to  see  the  Queen  of 
Olaza,  a  little  kingdom  bordering  on  Mangalore.  He  found 
that  travelling  in  Hindu  countries  was  difficult  on  the  score 
of  diet.  The  Hindus  would  not  furnish  him  with  fish  or 
flesh ;  they  would  only  supply  him  with  rice,  butter,  milk, 


1  Throughout  the  countries  of  Kanara  and  Malabar,  nephews  of  Nairs,  when 
born  of  sisters,  were  treated  as  sons,  and  inherited  the  property  to  the  exclusion 
of  sons.  The  causes  of  this  extraordinary  usage  are  fully  treated  in  the  larger 
History  of  India.  It  will  suffice  to  state  here  that  Rajas,  and  other  members 
of  the  military  class  of  Nairs,  were  not  regularly  married,  but  lived  such  irregu- 
lar lives  that  no  one  knew  who  was  the  father  of  a  child.  There  was,  however, 
a  certainty  about  a  blood  relationship  between  a  man  and  the  son  of  a  sister; 
and  accordingly  the  son  of  the  sister  inherited  the  property  or  throne  as  the 
nearest  of  the  blood  lineage. 


142  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

and  other  inanimate  things ;  this  they  would  only  do  as  a 
great  favor.  The  people  lived  by  cultivating  rice,  which 
was  done  by  overflowing  the  soil  with  water ;  but  they  com- 
plained of  the  large  tribute  they  were  obliged  to  pay  to 
Venk-tapa,  which  reduced  them  to  great  poverty  notwith- 
standing their  hard  labor. 

Delia  Valle  heard  that  the  Queen  of  Olaza  was  staying 
at  a  neighboring  town  named  Manel.  He  went  to  Mane.1, 
accompanied  by  a  Brahman  interpreter.  On  going  to  the 
bazar  to  procure  a  lodging  in  some  house,  he  saw  the  Queen 
coming  on  foot  the  same  way.  She  was  not  attended  by 
women,  but  only  by  soldiers.  Six  soldiers  walked  before 
her  with  swords  and  bucklers,  but  without  any  covering 
save  a  cloth  about  their  loins,  and  a  kind  of  scarf  over  the 
shoulder.  Other  soldiers  walked  behind  her  in  the  same 
fashion,  and  one  of  them  carried  an  umbrella  of  palm-leaves 
to  shade  her  from  the  sun. 

The  Queen  of  Olaza  was  as  black  as  an  Ethiopian.  She 
was  corpulent  and  gross,  but  not  heavy,  for  she  walked 
nimbly  enough.  She  was  about  forty  years  of  age.  She 
wore  a  plain  piece  of  cotton  cloth  from  her  waist  downward, 
but  nothing  at  all  from  her  waist  upward,  except  a  cloth 
about  her  head,  which  hung  down  a  little  upon  her  breast 
and  shoulders.  She  went  barefooted,  but  that  was  the  cus- 
tom of  all  Hindu  women,  high  and  low,  at  home  and  abroad. 
Most  of  the  men  went  unshod  in  like  manner.  A  few  of  the 
graver  sort  wore  sandals,  but  very  few  wore  shoes.  The 
Queen  was  more  like  a  kitchen-maid  or  a  washerwoman 
than  a  noble  princess ;  but  her  voice  was  graceful,  and  she 
spoke  like  a  woman  of  judgment. 

The  Queen  spoke  a  few  words  to  Delia  Valle  through  his 
Brahman  interpreter,  asking  what  had  brought  him  to  those 
woods  of  hers.  She  was  going  into  the  fields  about  a  mile 
off,  to  see  some  trenches  which  were  being  dug  for  convey- 
ing water  to  certain  lands;  and  when  she  returned  from  the 
fields,  she  was  busied  in  administering  justice  among  her 
people.  She  said,  however,  that  she  would  send  for  Delia 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  143 

Valle  in  the  evening.  Delia  Valle  procured  a  house  in 
Manel,  belonging  to  a  Moor;  and  was  thus  enabled  to  pro- 
cure animal  food.  He  waited  however  in  vain  for  a  mes- 
sage from  the  Queen.  She  was  heard  praising  the  liberality 
of  Delia  Valle  hi  paying  for  poultry  and  other  necessaries. 
She  said,  "Do  we  in  India  toil  and  moil  for  a  fanam,1  while 
this  stranger  spends  money  in  this  fashion?"  But  for  some 
unknown  reason  she  never  invited  Delia  Valle  to  come  and 
see  her. 

The  early  life  of  the  Queen  of  Olaza  reveals  something 
of  social  life  in  Kanara.  The  Raja  of  Olaza  had  died  leav- 
ing neither  son  nor  nephew.  Accordingly  his  wife  succeeded 
to  the  Raj.  The  wife  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  her  sister, 
the  present  Queen.  The  new  female  sovereign  married  the 
Raja  of  a  neighboring  territory,  called  Banghel;  but  the 
husband  and  wife  only  met  at  intervals.  The  Raja  had 
other  wives,  and  the  Queen  was  said  to  have  other  lovers. 
After  a  while  they  quarrelled,  and  the  Queen  returned  all 
the  jewels  the  Raja  had  given  her.  The  Raja  was  so 
offended  that  he  made  war  upon  her,  and  called  in  the  aid 
of  the  Portuguese.  The  Queen  appealed  to  Venk-tapa  Naik 
to  help  her.  In  the  end  Venk-tapa  annexed  the  Raj  of 
Banghel,  defeated  the  Portuguese,  and  compelled  the  Queen 
of  Olaza  to  cede  a  considerable  territory.  The  Portuguese 
embassy  was  sent  to  Venk-tapa  Naik  at  Ikkeri  to  protest 
against  the  annexation  of  Banghel,  on  the  ground  that  the 
Raja  was  an  ally  of  the  King  of  Portugal. 

Before  leaving  Mangalore,  Delia  Valle  paid  a  visit  to  a 
holy  man  dwelling  in  a  neighboring  hermitage.  He  was 
known  as  the  King  of  the  Yogis ;  a  sect  of  wandering  men- 
dicants, who  were  supposed  to  abstract  themselves  from  all 
the  cares  of  the  world.8  The  so-called  King  was  lord  of  a 

1  A  fanam  was  a  very  small  silver  coin,  worth  about  twopence-halfpenny. 

2  The  Yogis  are  dying  out  of  India.     They  were  common  enough  in  ancient 
times,  but  are  disappearing  before  the  advancing  tide  of  European  civilization. 
They  were  supposed  to  abstract  themselves  from  the  world,  and  to  lead  a  life  of 
religious  contemplation,  in  order  to  secure  the  deliverance  of  the  soul  from  the 
otherwise  endless  chain  of  transmigrations.     See  ante,  p.  85. 


144  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

little  circle  of  land,  comprising  a  hermitage,  a  temple,  and 
certain  habitations  for  Yogis,  together  with  a  few  country- 
houses  and  villages.  The  territory  had  been  given  to  the 
Yogis  by  a  former  Raja  of  Banghel ;  and  as  the  Yogis  had 
no  wives,  the  dominion  of  the  hermitage  and  adjacent  lands 
went  by  elective  succession.  The  Yogis  were  not  subject  to 
their  King  in  the  way  of  obedience,  but  only  paid  him  rever- 
ence and  honor.  They  went  where  they  listed,  and  were 
dispersed  among  different  temples;  but  at  certain  solemn 
times  they  assembled  at  the  hermitage  in  great  numbers, 
and  were  supplied  with  victuals  by  their  King.  Many  ser- 
vants and  laborers  of  the  King  lived  at  the  hermitage,  and 
cultivated  the  land  for  his  maintenance.  It  yielded  a  yearly 
revenue  of  about  five  or  six  thousand  pagodas,  or  nearly 
three  thousand  pounds  sterling.  Most  of  the  money  was 
spent  on  feasts;  the  remainder  was  devoted  to  the  service 
of  the  temple  and  idols. 

Delia  Valle  found  the  King  of  the  Yogis  employed  in 
business  of  a  mean  sort,  like  a  peasant  or  villager.  He  was 
an  old  man  with  a  long  white  beard,  but  strong  and  lusty. 
He  had  a  golden  bead  hanging  from  his  ear  as  big  as  a 
musket-bullet;  and  had  a  little  red  cap  like  those  worn  by 
Italian  galley-slaves.  He  seemed  a  man  of  judgment,  but 
was  without  learning.  He  told  Delia  Valle  that  formerly 
he  had  horses,  elephants,  and  a  great  equipage;  but  Venk- 
tapa  Naik  had  taken  all  away,  so  that  he  had  very  little  left. ' 

About  this  time  the  Portuguese  were  sending  a  fleet  from 
Mangalore  to  the  Eamorin  of  Calicut.  There  was  a  question 
of  peace  between  the  Portuguese  and  the  Zamorin.  The 
Zamorin  had  sued  for  peace;  but  the  Viceroy  would  not 
come  to  terms  unless  the  Raja  of  Cochin  was  included  in 
the  treaty.  Accordingly  a  fleet  was  sent  to  Calicut  with  the 
Viceroy's  ultimatum. 

The  better  sort  of  the  people  of  Malabar  were  Hindus, 


1  A  representative  of  the  King  of  the  Yogis  is  living  in  Mysore  to  this  day, 
and  is  still  complaining  of  his  loss  of  wealth  and  power. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  145 

especially  those  inland.  They  mostly  belonged  to  the  caste 
of  Nairs,  or  hereditary  soldiers.  The  sea-coasts  were  inhab- 
ited by  Malabar  Muhammadans,  who  lived  among  the  Hin- 
dus, and  spoke  their  language,  although  they  differed  in 
religion.  The  Malabar  Muhammadans  were  corsairs,  who 
had  infested  the  coast,  and  had  been  the  terror  of  merchant 
vessels  since  the  days  of  Pliny,  and  probably  for  ages  before. l 

Delia  Valle  went  on  board  the  Portuguese  fleet  with  the 
view  of  seeing  Calicut.  During  the  voyage  the  Portuguese 
had  two  encounters  with  Malabar  corsairs.  On  each  occa- 
sion the  light  vessels  of  the  corsairs  escaped  to  the  creeks 
and  mouths  of  rivers  which  were  scattered  along  that  coast. 
The  Portuguese  would  not  attack  them  by  land,  as  it  belonged 
to  the  Zamorin ;  and  they  were  anxious  to  respect  his  terri- 
tories while  the  peace  was  in  agitation. 

On  arriving  at  Calicut,  messengers  were  sent  to  the  Za- 
morin at  early  morning  with  the  ultimatum  of  the  Viceroy. 
If  he  wanted  to  make  peace  with  the  Portuguese,  he  must 
immediately  send  an  ambassador  on  board  the  fleet,  pledged 
to  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  Viceroy  at  Goa,  in  which  the 
Cochin  Raja  would  be  a  party. 

The  proposal  was  a  bitter  pill  for  the  Zamorin.  His  feud 
with  the  Raja  of  Cochin  had  been  handed  down  for  many 
generations ;  and  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  come  to  terms 
with  his  hereditary  enemy.  But  he  was  forced  to  take  some 
action.  He  had  ships  with  rich  cargoes  coming  from  the 
Red  Sea;  and  unless  he  made  peace  with  the  Viceroy,  the 
Portuguese  would  capture  the  ships.  Accordingly  he  sent 
messengers  to  the  admiral  of  the  fleet.  He  proposed  to 
make  a  treaty  with  the  Viceroy  first,  and  then  to  make  a 
treaty  with  the  Raja  of  Cochin.  Under  any  circumstances 
he  requested  that  the  fleet  would  stop  at  Calicut  until  he 
had  sufficient  time  to  deliberate  with  his  ministers  respect- 


1  Of  course  the  pirates  could  not  have  been  Muhammadans  in  the  days  of 
Pliny,  as  their  prophet  was  not  born  until  A.D.  570.     Probably  during  the  six- 
teenth century  the  pirates  had  been  recruited  by  the  Moors,  who  had  lost  their 
trade  with  the  Ked  Sea  and  Persian  Gulf  after  the  arrival  of  the  Portuguese. 
X— 7  INDIA.    VOL.  I. 


146  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

ing  the  proposed  treaty.  In  reply  he  was  told  that  the  fleet 
would  return  to  Goa  at  nightfall,  whether  the  ambassador 
came  on  board  or  no. 

Meanwhile  Delia  Valle,  with  the  captain  of  the  ship  he 
was  in,  and  some  others,  went  ashore  to  see  the  town  of 
Calicut.  The  streets  were  long  and  narrow.  The  houses 
were  mere  cottages  built  of  mud  and  palm-leaves.  The 
bazar  was  filled  with  provisions  and  other  necessaries,  but 
there  was  not  much  cloth.  Indeed  there  could  have  been 
little  demand  for  clothes ;  for  men  and  women  wore  nothing 
but  a  piece  of  cotton  or  silk,  hanging  from  their  girdles  to 
their  knees.  Delia  Valle  and  his  party  also  saw  much  of  the 
plunder  of  the  Malabar  pirates  in  the  bazar ;  such  as  Portu- 
guese swords,  arms,  books,  and  clothes,  which  had  been 
taken  from  Portuguese  vessels.  No  Christian  could  buy 
such  articles  under  pain  of  excommunication. 

"When  Delia  Valle  and  his  companions  were  tired  of  wan- 
dering about  the  bazar,  they  walked  toward  the  palace.  To 
their  great  surprise  some  persons  of  quality  came  up  and  in- 
vited them  to  enter  and  see  the  Zamorin.  They  accepted  the 
invitation,  and  entered  a  large  court  where  they  found  a 
number  of  courtiers. 

After  a  while  Delia  Valle  and  his  party  were  conducted 
into  a  smaller  court,  and  told  to  sit  down  on  a  raised  pave- 
ment. Suddenly  two  girls,  about  twelve  years  of  age,  en- 
tered the  court.  They  wore  no  covering  of  any  kind  except 
a  blue  cloth  about  their  loins;  but  their  arms,  ears,  and 
necks  were  covered  with  ornaments  of  gold  and  precious 
stones.  Their  complexion  was  swarthy  but  clear  enough; 
their  shape  was  well  proportioned  and  comely;  and  their 
aspect  was  handsome  and  well  favored.  They  were  both 
daughters  of  the  Queen ;  that  is,  not  of  the  Zamorin,  but  of 
his  sister,  who  was  styled  the  Queen,  and  was  so  in  effect. 
These  two  girls  were  in  fact  Infantas  of  the  kingdom  of 
Calieut.  Upon  their  entrance  all  the  courtiers  paid  them 
great  reverence;  and  Delia  Valle  and  his  companions  rose 
from  their  seats,  and  saluted  them,  and  then  stood  before 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  147 

them  bareheaded.  The  girls  talked  together  respecting  the 
strangers;  and  one  of  them  approached  Delia  Valle,  and 
touched  the  sleeve  of  his  coat  with  her  hand,  and  expressed 
wonder  at  his  attire.  Indeed  they  were  as  surprised  at  the 
dress  of  the  strangers,  as  the  strangers  were  at  the  strange 
appearance  of  the  girls. 

Presently  the  Zamorin  came  in  accompanied  by  more 
courtiers.  He  was  a  young  man  of  thirty  years  of  age,  of 
large  bulk  of  body,  and  a  handsome  presence.  He  had  a 
long  beard,  and  wore  nothing  except  the  cloth  hanging  from 
his  girdle.1  He  had  bracelets  on  his  arms,  pendants  at  his 
ears,  and  other  ornaments  with  jewels  and  rubies  of  value. 
In  his  hand  he  carried  a  stick  like  a  shepherd's  staff.  He 
received  the  salutations  of  the  strangers  with  smiles  and 
courtesy,  standing  all  the  while  and  leaning  on  the  staff. 
Many  courtiers  came  in  and  saluted  the  Zamorin  with  joined 
hands.  There  were  higher  cloisters  round  the  court  filled 
with  women,  who  had  come  to  behold  the  strangers.  The 
Queen  sister  stood  apart  in  the  most  prominent  place,  with 
no  more  clothing  than  her  daughters,  but  abundantly  adorned 
with  jewels. 

The  secret  now  transpired ;  the  Zamorin  wanted  to  sound 
the  party  as  to  the  intentions  of  the  admiral  of  the  fleet. 
The  captain  declared  that  he  was  only  a  private  soldier,  and 
knew  nothing  of  the  admiral  or  his  business;  while  all  the 
others  were  absolutely  ignorant  of  the  state  of  affairs.  Fi- 
nally, after  a  long  interview,  the  Zamorin  requested  the  cap- 
tain to  persuade  the  admiral  to  stop  at  Calicut  until  the 
deliberations  were  over;  and  then  he  dismissed  the  party. 
The  fleet  remained  at  Calicut  all  night,  and  sailed  away 
next  morning  without  any  ambassador. 

In  Malabar  the  persons  of  Rajas  were  sacred  in  battle. 
The  Nairs  fought  on  either  side,  but  no  one  fought  a  Raja, 


1  This  was  not  a  state  occasion  like  that  on  which  a  Zamorin  had  received 
Vasco  de  G-ama  more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  previously.  The  ab- 
sence of  the  vestment  shows  that  it  was  only  an  ordinary  reception.  See  ante, 
p.  127,  note. 


148  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

or  even  struck  the  royal  umbrella.  To  shed  the  blood  of  a 
Raja  was  regarded  as  a  heinous  sin,  and  would  be  followed 
by  a  terrible  revenge.  The  Zamorin  was  of  a  lower  caste 
than  the  Raja  of  Cochin.1  If  the  Zamorin  was  killed,  his 
subjects  devoted  three  days  to  revenge;  they  ran  "amok," 
as  it  was  called,  killing  all  they  met  until  they  were  killed 
themselves.  If  the  Raja  of  Cochin  was  killed,  his  subjects 
ran  "amok"  for  the  rest  of  their  lives.2 


1  The  question  of  caste  between  the  Zamorin  of  Calicut  and  the  Raja  of  Cochin 
was  the  cause  of  the  feud.  According  to  a  religious  myth  the  land  of  Malabar 
had  been  given  to  the  Brahmans  by  the  god  Parasu  Rama.  The  Brahmans 
called  in  the  Nairs  for  their  protection.  The  Rajas  then  ruled  Malabar  as  depu- 
ties of  the  Brahmans.  The  Zamorin  affected  a  superiority  over  the  Brahmans, 
and  ruled  as  a  deputy  of  the  gods.  In  revenge  the  Brahmans  affected  to  regard 
the  Zamorin  as  a  Sudra,  inferior  in  caste  to  the  Raja  of  Cochin.  Such  a  quarrel 
could  not  possibly  be  settled  by  a  treaty  with  the  Portuguese.  For  more  than 
a  century  there  must  have  been  constant  deliberations  between  the  Zamorin  and 
his  ministers  upon  this  difficult  and  delicate  question. 

9  This  was  the  origin  of  the  English  phrase  "running  amuck."  It  prevails 
among  Rajputs,  Malays,  and  other  cognate  racea. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  149 


CHAPTER  IV 
MOGHUL    EMPIRE— BABER,    HUMAYUN,   AKBAR 

A.D.  1525  TO  1605 

DURING  the  sixteenth  century,  while  the  Portuguese 
were  establishing  their  maritime  empire  in  the  east- 
ern seas,  two  races  were  contending  for  the  empire 
of  Hindustan,  namely,  the  Afghans  and  the  Moghuls.     Both 
races  were  associated  with  a  remote  past ;  both  have  played 
important  parts  in  the  modern  history  of  India. 

To  all  appearance  the  Afghans  are  of  Jewish  origin ;  not 
Jews  of  the  orthodox  type,  the  outcome  of  Jerusalem  and 
the  temple  worship;  but  Jews  of  the  old  turbulent  stiff- 
necked  type,  who  revolted  at  Shechem  against  Rehoboam, 
and  set  up  golden  calves  at  Bethel  and  Dan.  The  Afghans 
claim  to  be  descendants  of  Saul  the  son  of  Kish. '  They  are 
divided  into  tribes,  clans,  and  families.  They  distribute  con- 
quered lands  by  lot ;  perform  the  ceremony  of  the  scapegoat, 
and  build  shrines  on  high  places.  Their  features  are  unmis- 
takably Jewish ;  but  their  language  is  not  Hebrew,  nor  any- 
thing akin  to  Hebrew.  It  is  conjectured  that  they  are  the 
descendants  of  the  Ten  Tribes,  whom  the  King  of  Assyria 
carried  away  to  the  city  of  the  Medes ;  but  the  loss  of  all 
traces  of  the  Hebrew  language  militates  against  the  theory, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  verify  the  identity.*  In  modern  times 

1  This  tradition  helps  to  identify  the  Afghans  with  the  children  of  the  men 
who  fought  against  the  house  of  David. 

*  The  Jewish  features  of  the  Afghans  outweighs,  to  the  author's  mind,  the 
evidence  of  language.     The  face  of  Shere  Ali  Khan,  the  late  Amir  of  Afghanis- 
tan, revealed  not  only  the  Jewish  features,  but  the  melancholy  mania  that  be 
longs  to  the  character  of  Saul. 


150  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

they  are  Muhammadans  of  the  Sunni  religion,  and  tradi- 
tional foes  of  the  Persians  or  Shiahs. 

The  early  conquests  of  the  Afghans  in  India  are  obscure. 
In  the  thirteenth  century  a  dynasty  of  Afghan  Sultans  was 
reigning  at  Delhi  under  the  name  of  Patans ;  and  this  name 
is  said  to  have  been  derived  from  an  earlier  Afghan  domin- 
ion at  Patna.  *  Toward  the  end  of  the  century  the  Afghan 
dynasty  was  ousted  by  a  Turkish  dynasty ;  and  for  a  century 
and  a  half  the  Afghans  fade  away  from  history. 

In  1398-99  Hindustan  was  invaded  by  Timur  the  Tartar. 
After  his  departure  the  affairs  of  Hindustan  are  veiled  in 
darkness.  He  left  officers  at  Delhi  to  rule  in  his  name,  or 
rather  to  collect  tribute  in  his  name ;  and  accordingly  four 
princes  reigned  in  succession  at  Delhi  in  his  name,  but  noth- 
ing is  known  of  them  of  any  moment.  The  last  was  swept 
away  by  the  tide  of  Afghan  invasion. 

In  1450  the  Afghans  were  overrunning  the  Punjab  and 
Hindustan.  They  established  a  dynasty  at  Delhi,  known  as 
the  Lodi  dynasty.  They  were  bitter  persecutors  of  the  Hin- 
dus and  their  religion.  They  broke  down  temples  and  built 
mosques  in  their  room,  as  in  the  days  of  Mahmud  of  Ghazni. 
A  Brahman  was  put  to  death  by  a  Sultan  of  this  dynasty  for 
maintaining  that  the  religions  of  Hindus  and  Muhammadans 
were  equally  acceptable  in  the  eyes  of  God. 

Afghan  dominion  is  always  divided  and  unsettled,  except- 
ing at  rare  intervals,  when  a  man  of  energy  and  genius  is  at 
the  head  of  affairs.  The  Afghan  Sultans  of  Delhi  had  no 
firm  hold  on  their  empire.  Lawless  Afghans  had  spread 
over  Hindustan,  and  some  of  their  leaders  had  established 
themselves  as  independent  princes.  They  occupied  fort- 
resses, exercised  local  dominion,  and  levied  tribute  and 
blackmail,  especially  in  the  outlying  provinces  of  Bihar 
and  Bengal.  They  were  often  in  revolt  against  the  Sul- 
tans of  Delhi,  and  often  at  war  among  themselves.  They 


1  The  old  capital  of  Bengal  at  Gour  seems  to  have  been  named  after  the 
ancient  Afghan  stronghold  of  Ghor  between  Ghazni  and  Herat. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  151 

bore  a  strong  family  likeness  to  their  reputed  forefathers, 
who  rebelled  against  the  house  of  David ;  and  they  bore  an 
equally  strong  likeness  to  their  descendants,  who  have  so 
often  rebelled  and  fought  in  Herat  and  Kandahar. 

The  Afghans  have  left  a  bad  name  in  India.  Their  pas- 
sion for  revenge  has  become  a  proverb.  No  man  is  said  to 
be  safe  from  the  revenge  of  an  elephant,  a  cobra,  or  an 
Afghan. 

The  Moghuls  are  men  of  a  different  stamp.  In  history 
they  are  associated  with  the  great  Tartar  invasions  under 
Chenghiz  Khan  and  Timur.  Their  so-called  annals  are  be- 
wildering stories  of  evanescent  dynasties.  Sometimes  they 
founded  a  dominion  as  vast  as  the  empires  of  Darius  and 
Ahasuerus ;  and  then,  after  a  few  generations,  it  crumbled 
into  fragments,  and  provinces  were  transmuted  into  inde- 
pendent kingdoms. 

Father  Rubruquis,  who  travelled  through  the  greater 
part  of  Asia  shortly  after  the  death  of  Chenghiz  Khan, 
says  that  the  Moghuls  were  the  ruling  tribe  among  the  Tar- 
tars. This  statement  is  a  clew  to  their  history.  The  Tartars 
are  barbarous  nomads,  who  have  wandered  over  the  vast 
steppes  of  Asia,  from  pasture  to  pasture,  from  an  unknown 
antiquity.  They  have  no  settled  habitations,  and  dwell  in 
huts  which  they  carry  about  on  carts.  They  probably  rep- 
resent the  ancient  Scythians;  and  if  so,  the  Moghuls  may 
represent  the  Royal  Scythians.1 

The  Moghuls  were  proud  and  arrogant ;  but  they  were 
inquisitive  and  tolerant,  especially  in  matters  of  religion. 
Indeed  it  was  one  of  the  laws  of  Chenghiz  Khan  that  every 
priest  was  to  be  reverenced  who  taught  the  belief  in  one 
God.  Many  became  Muhammadans,  but  they  were  very 
lax  observers  of  the  Koran,  and  had  none  of  the  bigotry 

1  The  Royal  Scythians  are  an  interesting  but  obscure  tribe  described  by  He- 
rodotus. Their  religion,  like  that  of  the  Scythians  generally,  was  undoubtedly 
Vaidik,  and  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  has  proved  that  their  language  was  Aryan. 
Philologists  may  deny  that  there  is  any  identity  between  the  terms  ^niOai  and 
Kshatriya,  but  there  are  other  similarities  which  may  help  to  solve  the  problem 
as  regards  the  origin  of  the  Vaidik  Aryans. 


152  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

which  characterized  the  Afghans.  Marco  Polo,  the  Vene- 
tian, who  was  entertained  at  the  court  of  the  great  Khan,  is 
loud  in  praising  the  Moghuls.  Father  Rubruquis,  who  ex- 
cited their  suspicions,  complains  bitterly  of  their  deceitful 
ways  and  coarse  mode  of  life. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  Moghuls  had  lost  many  of 
their  Tartar  features  and  much  of  their  Tartar  manners. 
The  yellow  complexions,  high  cheek-bones  and  ugly  mouths 
had  disappeared;  and  the  Moghuls  who  conquered  Hindu- 
stan bore  a  general  resemblance  to  Persians.  These  changes 
have  led  to  confusion.  The  people  of  India  often  include 
Persians  under  the  general  name  of  Moghuls;  but  they  al- 
ways mark  the  distinction  between  Moghul  and  Afghan. 

The  founder  of  the  Moghul  empire  in  India  was  a  chief- 
tain named  Baber.  The  career  of  Baber  is  a  romance.  He 
was  born  in  1482;  and  claims  descent  from  Timur  and 
Chenghiz  Khan.  At  the  age  of  twelve  he  inherited  the 
kingdom  of  Khokand  on  the  Jaxartes.  While  still  a  youth 
he  conquered  the  whole  of  Bokhara  from  the  Jaxartes  to  the 
Oxus.  Subsequently,  after  years  of  fighting,  he  was  driven 
out  of  Bokhara  by  the  Uzbegs,  and  founded  a  kingdom  in 
Afghanistan. 

The  character  of  Baber  is  revealed  in  his  memoirs,  which 
are  said  to  have  been  written  by  himself.  Sometimes  he 
was  storming  a  city  or  defending  a  stronghold;  at  other 
times  he  was  an  exile  in  the  desert  broken  down  by  wounds 
and  privations;  but  on  all  occasions  he  had  an  easy  temper, 
and  an  affectionate  regard  for  the  playmates  of  his  boyhood, 
his  mother  and  female  relatives,  and  for  all  old  friends.  He 
was  fond  of  a  drinking  bout  with  gay  companions.  He  freely 
describes  the  temptations  which  led  to  these  excesses  —the 
shady  wood,  the  hill  with  a  fine  prospect,  or  the  idleness  of 
a  boat  floating  down  a  river.  He  also  tells  the  amusements 
which  accompanied  them — extempore  verses,  recitations  in 
Turki  and  Persian,  sometimes  a  song,  and  often  a  contest 
of  repartee.1 

1  JSrskine'  s  translation  of  Baber  s  Memoirs. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA 


153 


154  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

For  years  Baber  had  contemplated  the  conquest  of  Hin- 
dustan. In  1525  he  was  encouraged  to  make  the  attempt. 
The  reigning  Sultan  of  Delhi  was  weak  and  fickle.  The 
whole  Afghan  empire  was  disaffected.  The  Afghan  gov- 
ernor of  the  Punjab  invited  Baber  to  invade  the  country. 
At  the  same  time  the  suzerain  of  the  Rajput  princes,  the 
Rana  of  Chitor,  sent  messengers  to  Baber  promising  to  at- 
tack Agra  if  the  Moghuls  would  attack  Delhi.  Baber  obeyed 
the  call.  In  the  winter  of  1525-26  he  crossed  the  Indus  at 
the  head  of  ten  thousand  men.  The  Afghan  Sultan  marched 
against  him  with  an  immense  army,  but  was  defeated  and 
slain. 

Baber  occupied  Delhi  and  then  marched  to  Agra.  As 
he  advanced  the  Hindus  fled  from  the  villages,  and  he  fell 
short  of  supplies.  To  crown  all,  he  found  the  whole  army 
of  the  Rajput  league  arrayed  against  him,  not  as  a  friend 
and  ally,  but  as  an  enemy  resolved  to  drive  him  out  of 
Hindustan. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Rana  of  Chitor  were  treacherous 
but  intelligible.  He  expected  Baber  to  invade  Hindustan  as 
Timur  had  done;  that  is,  to  sack  Delhi  and  then  go  away, 
leaving  him,  the  Rana,  to  re-establish  the  ancient  empire  of 
the  Rajputs  over  Hindustan  and  the  Punjab.  "When  Baber 
defeated  the  Afghan  Sultan,  the  Rana  made  no  advance  to 
Agra,  but  waited  for  events.  "When  Baber  captured  Delhi 
and  marched  to  Agra,  the  Rana  felt  aggrieved  and  went  out 
to  fight  the  invaders. 

The  battle  between  the  Moghuls  and  the  Rajputs  was 
desperate  but  decisive.  Baber  aroused  the  enthusiasm  of 
his  Muhammadan  troops  against  the  idolaters.  He  broke 
up  his  drinking  vessels  on  the  field,  and  swore  that  hence- 
forth he  would  never  taste  wine.  The  battle  was  fought  at 
Sikri,  a  few  miles  from  Agra.  Baber  gained  the  victory, 
and  the  Rajputs  fled  back  to  their  hills.  From  that  day  to 
this  the  Rajputs  have  never  attempted  to  reconquer  Hindu- 
stan. 

Baber  reigned  four  years  afterward,  but  was  chiefly  oo- 


MUHAMMAD  AN   INDIA  1£5 

cupied  in  rooting  the  Afghans  out  of  their  strongholds.  He 
died  in  1530,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Humayun. 

Baber  was  a  bad  Muhammadan,  inasmuch  as  he  drank 
wine  and  allied  with  the  idolatrous  Rana  of  Chitor  against 
Afghan  believers.  His  son  Humayun  was  a  worse  Muham- 
madan, for  he  relapsed  into  the  old  nature  worship  of  the 
Moghuls.  He  divided  his  household  affairs  according  to 
the  four  elements  of  fire,  air,  water,  and  earth.  He  built 
a  pavilion  with  seven  apartments  of  different  colors  to  rep- 
resent the  sun,  moon,  and  planets ;  and  he  sat  each  day  in 
a  different  apartment,  and  transacted  business  or  took  his 
pleasure  according  to  the  reigning  luminary. 

Humayun  was  engaged  like  his  father  in  rooting  Afghans 
out  of  their  strongholds;  but  he  lacked  his  father's  energy 
and  decision.  An  Afghan  named  Sher  Khan  was  in  pos- 
session of  Chunar,  an  important  fortress  on  the  south  bank 
of  the  Ganges,  which  commanded  the  line  of  communication 
between  Hindustan  and  Bengal.  Humayun  demanded  the 
surrender  of  the  fortress,  and  might  easily  have  dislodged 
the  Afghan ;  but  Sher  Khan  affected  entire  submission,  sent 
his  son  with  a  troop  of  horse  to  fight  in  the  army  of  the 
Moghul,  and  begged  to  be  allowed  to  hold  the  fortress  in 
the  name  of  Humayun.  In  a  word,  Humayun  was  cajoled 
into  leaving  Sher  Khan  in  possession  of  Chunar. 

About  this  time  Humayun  interfered  in  Rajput  affairs. 
A  Sultan  of  Guzerat,  the  very  man  who  invited  the  Sultan 
of  Turkey  to  drive  out  the  Portuguese,  had  invaded  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  Rana  of  Chitor.  The  city  was  invested  by  the 
Muhammadans,  as  it  had  been  in  the  reign  of  Ala  ud-din. 
The  women  performed  another  Johur ;  among  them  was  the 
widow  of  the  Rana  who  fought  against  Baber.  Before  the 
princess  joined  the  sacrifice,  she  provided  for  the  escape  of 
her  infant  son,  and  sent  her  bracelet  to  Humayun. 

The  gift  of  the  bracelet  is  a  relic  of  the  days  of  Rajput 
chivalry.  Whenever  a  Rajput  lady  is  in  peril,  be  she  wife 
or  maiden,  she  may  select  a  protector  by  sending  him  her 
bracelet.  She  thus  adopts  him  as  her  brother.  He  may 


156  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

never  see  her,  but  he  is  flattered  by  the  mystery  and  honor. 
Humayun  accepted  the  bracelet  and  obeyed  the  summons. 
Muhammadan  historians  say  that  Humayun  was  a  follower 
of  the  Prophet ;  but  his  conduct  is  at  variance  with  the  state- 
ment. He  went  to  war  against  a  brother  Muhammadan  on 
account  of  a  Rajput  princess,  and  drove  the  Sultan  of  Gu- 
zerat  out  of  Chitor. 

When  Humayun  returned  to  Agra,  he  found  that  Sher 
Khan  the  Afghan  had  taken  possession  of  Bengal.  He  now 
had  reason  to  curse  his  folly  in  leaving  the  fortress  of  Chunar 
in  the  hands  of  Sher  Khan.  He  was  obliged  to  capture  the 
fortress  before  he  could  enter  Bengal ;  and  six  months  were 
wasted  before  the  walls  before  it  was  starved  into  surrender- 
ing. Next  he  was  blocked  up  by  the  Afghans  in  the  narrow 
defile  between  the  Ganges  and  the  Rajmahal  Hills,  which  is 
the  only  opening  into  Bengal.  Finally  he  entered  Bengal 
at  the  beginning  of  the  rains,  and  lost  a  large  portion  of  his 
army  by  fever  and  dysentery.  When  the  rains  were  over 
he  tried  to  return  to  Agra,  but  was  attacked  and  routed  by 
Sher  Khan.  His  affairs  were  so  desperate  that  he  had  no 
alternative  but  to  fly  to  Persia;  and  there  he  remained  in 
exile  for  a  period  of  fifteen  years. 

The  Afghan  rule  of  Sher  Khan  and  his  successors  is  a 
break  in  the  history.  It  is  a  strange  fact  that  the  Afghans, 
the  bigoted  enemies  of  the  Hindus  and  their  religion,  should 
have  maintained  an  empire  over  the  Punjab  and  Hindustan 
for  fifteen  years.  Stranger  still,  the  last  Sultan  of  this 
Afghan  dynasty  favored  the  Hindus  and  lost  his  throne  in 
consequence.  He  appointed  a  Hindu  named  Hemu  to  be 
his  minister,  and  advanced  Hindus  to  rank  and  power.  Ac- 
cordingly his  own  nobles  rebelled  against  him,  and  thus 
opened  a  way  for  the  return  of  Humayun. 

The  adventures  of  Humayun  during  this  interval  have 
little  bearing  on  the  history.  During  his  flight  to  Persia, 
his  favorite  wife  gave  birth  to  the  celebrated  Akbar.  Dur- 
ing his  residence  in  Persia  he  is  said  to  have  cast  aside  the 
Sunni  religion  and  become  a  Shiah  out  of  deference  to  the 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  151 

Shah.  In  1555  he  raised  a  force  and  returned  to  Hindustan 
and  recovered  possession  of  Delhi  and  Agra. 

A  final  struggle  was  pending  between  Moghul  and 
Afghan,  when  Humayun  was  killed  by  an  accident.  He 
was  ascending  the  stone  steps  outside  the  palace  in  order  to 
say  his  evening  prayers  on  the  roof,  when  his  foot  slipped 
and  he  fell  lifeless  on  the  pavement  below. 

The  Afghan  conquest  of  Hindustan  between  1540  and 
1555  has  never  been  forgotten  by  the  Afghan  people.  In 
their  eyes  it  gives  them  a  traditional  claim  to  the  possession 
of  Hindustan.  Baber  claimed  Hindustan  by  virtue  of  the 
conquest  of  Timur ;  and  in  after  years  the  Afghans  affected 
to  claim  Hindustan  by  virtue  of  the  conquest  of  Sher  Khan. 
Such  assumptions  are  mere  phantoms  of  Oriental  imagina- 
tions, but  nevertheless  they  often  have  a  bearing  upon  the 
current  of  Oriental  history. 

Akbar,  the  son  and  successor  of  Humayun,  was  the  real 
founder  of  the  Moghul  empire  in  India.  By  wise  policy  and 
consummate  craft  he  put  an  end  to  the  conflict  between 
Afghan  and  Moghul,  and  brought  about  a  reconciliation 
between  Muhammadan  and  Hindu.  The  annals  of  his  reign 
open  up  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  India. 

Akbar,  the  contemporary  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  succeeded 
his  father  in  1556.  He  was  only  a  boy  of  fourteen;  and 
when  Humayun  was  dying  at  Delhi,  the  young  prince  was 
away  in  the  Punjab  fighting  the  Afghans.  His  guardian 
was  an  experienced  general  named  Bairam  Khan,  and  when 
the  boy  became  Padishah  the  guardian  became  regent. ' 

The  Moghul  empire  was  in  sore  peril.  A  host  of  Afghans 
had  advanced  up  the  valley  of  the  Jumna  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Hemu,  and  recovered  the  cities  of  Agra  and  Delhi, 
and  was  now  marching  on  to  the  Punjab."  The  Moghul 


1  The  term  Padishah  was  the  Moghul  equivalent  for  Emperor.  The  la«t 
syllable  is  the  well-known  Persian  "Shah,"  signifying  origin  or  lord.  "Pad" 
signified  stability  and  possession.  See  Abul  Fazl's  preface  to  the  Ain-i-Akbari, 
translated  by  Mr.  Blochmann. 

3  The  history  of  this  crisis  is  a  mystery.     Possibly  the  facts  have  been  mis- 


158  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

officers  were  in  such  a  panic  of  fear  that  they  counselled  r 
retreat  to  Kabul. 

Akbar  and  his  guardian  resolved  on  battle.  A  bloody  ac- 
tion was  fought,  and  the  Moghuls  gained  the  victory.  Hemu 
was  wounded  in  the  eye  and  taken  prisoner.  Bairam  Khan 
exhorted  Akbar  to  kill  the  Hindu  and  win  the  title  of  Ghazi- 
ud-din,  or  "champion  of  the  faith. "  Akbar  refused  to  slaugh- 
ter a  helpless  warrior,  and  Bairam  Khan  beheaded  the  Hindu 
with  his  own  sword. 

During  the  four  years  that  followed  there  were  constant 
wars  between  Moghuls  and  Afghans.  Meanwhile  Akbar 
reached  his  eighteenth  year,  and  resolved  to  throw  off  the 
control  of  his  guardian.  He  left  the  camp  under  the  plea 
of  a  visit  to  his  mother.  He  next  proclaimed  that  he  had 
assumed  the  sovereign  authority  of  Padishah,  and  that  no 
orders  were  to  be  obeyed  but  his  own.  Bairam  Khan  saw 
that  he  had  lost  his  power.  He  tried  to  cajole  Akbar  into 
appointing  him  minister,  but  the  young  Padishah  was  re- 
solved to  be  his  own  master.  Akbar  offered  his  old  guar- 
dian any  post  he  pleased  excepting  that  of  minister.  But 
Bairam  Khan  would  be  minister  or  nothing,  and  prepared 
to  go  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca.  He  was  about  to  depart 
when  he  was  assassinated  by  an  Afghan.  It  was  the  old 
story  of  Afghan  revenge.  Bairam  Khan  had  killed  the 
father  of  the  assassin  in  some  battle,  and  was  stabbed  to 
death  by  the  son. 

The  wars  of  Akbar  are  of  small  interest.  He  had  to  re- 
store order  in  Hindustan  after  two  centuries  of  anarchy  and 
misrule.  To  effect  this  object  it  was  necessary  to  capture 
fortresses  in  the  hands  of  Afghans,  and  to  stamp  out  dis- 
affection and  revolt  among  his  own  turbulent  chieftains.  It 
was  also  necessary  to  subdue  and  dethrone  dynasties  of  in- 
dependent Sultans  who  had  built  up  kingdoms  in  Guzerat, 
Malwa,  and  Bengal,  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old  Delhi  empire 

represented  by  Muhammadan  historians ;  but  in  the  absence  of  other  contempo- 
rary authorities  it  is  impossible  to  test  their  statements.  The  march  of  an  Afghan 
army  under  a  Hindu  general  is  opposed  to  all  Asiatic  experiences. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  159 

of  the  Tughlaks.  In  all  these  wars  he  displayed  the  energy 
and  skill  of  a  practiced  commander,  and  the  bodily  strength 
of  a  warrior  familiar  from  his  boyhood  with  the  toils  of  war 
and  the  sports  of  the  field. 

But  though  the  wars  are  of  small  interest,  some  traditions 
have  been  preserved  which  serve  to  bring  out  the  character 
of  Akbar,  and  illustrate  the  lawlessness  against  which  he 
had  to  contend.  An  officer  named  Adham  Khan  was  sent  to 
reduce  a  Sultan  of  Malwa.  The  Sultan  fled  at  his  approach 
and  left  his  treasures  behind.  Adham  Khan  took  possession 
of  Malwa,  but  kept  back  the  Padishah's  share  of  the  spoil, 
and  only  sent  a  few  elephants  to  Agra.  Suddenly  he  learned 
that  Akbar  was  at  hand  with  a  strong  force  and  hastened  to 
make  submission  and  reparation.  Akbar  feigned  to  be  satis- 
fied and  returned  to  Agra.  Adham  Khan  was  soon  recalled 
to  Agra  and  another  governor  sent  in  his  room.  Adham 
Khan  found  that  no  command  was  given  to  him,  and  thought 
that  the  minister  was  his  enemy ;  he  went  to  the  palace  and 
stabbed  the  minister  to  death  in  the  hall  of  audience.  Akbar 
heard  the  uproar  and  rushed  to  the  place.  The  murderer 
begged  for  mercy,  but  was  thrown  over  the  parapet  by 
Akbar's  orders,  and  perished  on  the  spot. 

Another  officer  in  Bihar  kept  back  the  Padishah's  share 
in  like  manner,  and  soon  found  that  Akbar  was  upon  him. 
He,  too,  made  submission  and  reparation,  but  then  fled  from 
Bihar  and  joined  some  rebels  in  Oude.  At  that  moment 
Akbar  was  called  away  to  the  Punjab  by  an  invasion  of 
Afghans.  Meanwhile  the  whole  region  to  the  north  of  the 
Ganges  broke  out  in  open  revolt.  Akbar  disposed  of  the 
Afghans  and  then  marched  back  to  Allahabad  in  the  middle 
of  the  rainy  season.  He  reached  the  Ganges  with  his  body- 
guard while  the  rebel  army  was  encamped  in  perfect  security 
on  the  opposite  shore.  At  night  he  swam  the  river  with  his 
bodyguard,  and  fell  upon  the  enemy  at  daybreak.  The 
thunder  of  the  imperial  kettle-drums  sufficed  to  scare  away 
the  rebels.  The  flight  was  a  stampede.  Some  of  the  ring- 
leaders were  slain  in  the  pursuit ;  the  greater  number  were 


160  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

taken  prisoners  and  trampled  to  death  by  elephants,  after 
the  barbarous  custom  of  Moghul  times. 

The  rebellion  was  crushed  out  in  Oude,  but  it  was  soon 
followed  by  others.  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  the  Mu- 
hammadan  religion  had  lost  its  force.  The  brotherhood  of 
Islam  could  not  bind  Moghul,  Turk,  and  Afghan  into  one 
united  mass  as  it  had  united  the  Arab  tribes  in  the  old  wars 
of  the  Khalifat.  The  dismemberment  of  the  Muhammadan 
empire  in  India  had  begun  two  centuries  before,  at  the  fall 
of  the  Tughlak  dynasty  and  revolt  of  the  Dekhan.  Under 
such  circumstances  Akbar  called  in  the  aid  of  a  new  power 
to  restore  peace  in  Hindustan  and  consolidate  a  new  empire; 
and  the  policy  which  he  pursued  forms  the  most  important 
and  interesting  event  in  the  history  of  his  reign. 

Akbar  was  not  a  man  of  culture  like  the  Muhammadan 
Sultans  of  olden  time.  If  he  had  gone  with  his  father  to 
Persia  he  might  have  received  a  schooling;  but  he  stayed 
with  an  uncle  in  Kabul  and  learned  nothing  but  war.  He 
could  not  read  or  write,1  but  he  had  listened  to  histories,  and 
seems  to  have  formed  ideas.  He  was  not  a  zealous  Muham- 
madan, and  he  certainly  did  not  share  in  the  Muhammadan 
hatred  of  idolaters.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  imbued  with 
the  religious  toleration  of  Chenghiz  Khan,  and  inclined  to 
regard  all  religions  as  equal.  He  resolved  to  amalgamate 
Hindus  and  Muhammadans  into  an  imperial  system,  hi  which 
the  one  should  be  a  check  on  the  other.  In  a  word,  he  fore- 
shadowed that  policy  of  equality  of  race  and  religion  which 
maintained  the  integrity  of  the  Moghul  empire  for  more 
than  a  century,  and  since  then  has  been  the  mainstay  of 
the  British  empire  in  India. 

The  first  step  in  the  work  of  amalgamation  was  the  con- 
quest and  pacification  of  the  princes  of  Rajputana.  The 
Rajput  league,  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Rana  of  Chitor, 
was  bound  together  by  a  system  of  intermarriages.  Hindus 


1  Akbar  made  up  for  some  of  his  deficiencies  in  after  years.     His  Spelling- 
book  was  preserved  as  a  curiosity  down  to  modern  times. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  161 

"narry  but  one  wife,  but  polygamy  has  always  been  the 
practice  of  Rajas.  The  Rana  of  Chitor  was  supposed  to 
be  the  descendant  of  Rama  and  the  old  Rajas  of  Ayodhya, 
the  noblest  of  the  children  of  the  sun.1  Every  Raja  consid- 
ered it  a  high  honor  to  receive  a  daughter  of  the  Rana  in 
marriage.  In  like  manner  every  Raja  deemed  it  an  honor 
to  give  a  daughter  in  marriage  to  the  Rana. 

By  this  time  the  old  ceremony  of  the  Swayamvara  had 
died  out  of  India.  A  Rajput  princess  no  longer  appeared  in 
her  father's  hall,  to  signify  her  choice  of  a  husband  by  the 
gift  of  a  garland.  But  the  fiction  of  "self -choice"  had  been 
preserved,  and  continues  to  this  day.  A  gilded  cocoanut  is 
still  formally  sent  to  a  Raja  in  the  name  of  a  princess  as 
symbolical  of  choice.  It  is  but  an  empty  compliment,  for 
the  girl  has  no  voice  in  the  matter ;  but  the  cocoanut  is  a 
relic  of  a  civilization  which  has  passed  away. 

The  policy  of  Akbar  was  to  put  the  Padishah  in  the  room 
of  the  Rana ;  to  become  himself  the  suzerain  of  the  Rajput 
league,  and  the  commander  of  all  the  Rajput  armies.  To 
carry  out  this  object  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  take 
the  daughters  of  the  Rajas  to  be  his  wives,  and  give  them 
daughters  in  return.  The  idea  was  repulsive  alike  to  Rajput 
and  Muhammadan;  it  was  contrary  to  caste  laws;  it  was 
contrary  to  the  religion  of  the  Koran  unless  the  bride  be- 
came a  convert  to  Islam.  In  a  word,  the  policy  could  only 
be  carried  out  by  a  barbarian  and  a  despot ;  and  such  a  man 
was  Akbar. 

The  wars  of  Akbar  in  Rajputana  may  be  forgotten.8  It 
will  suffice  to  say  that  after  bitter  struggles  Jaipur  and 
Jodhpur  yielded  to  their  fate,  and  each  gave  a  daughter  in 
marriage  to  Akbar,  and  paid  him  homage  as  their  suzerain. 


1  Of  course  there  are  rival  families,  but  the  superior  claims  of  the  Rana  are 
pretty  generally  acknowledged. 

2  It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  the  relative  positions  of  Rajputana  and 
Malwa,  between  the  Jumna  and  the  Nerbudda  Rivers.     Rajputana  lies  to  the 
west  of  the  river  Chambal,  and  extends  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Indus. 
Malwa  lies  to  the  east  of  the  Chambal,  and  extends  in  a  southerly  direction  to 
the  Nerbudda  river. 


102  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

In  return  he  added  to  their  territories,  raised  them  to  high 
rank  in  his  court,  loaded  them  with  honors,  and  took  their 
armies  into  his  pay.  Other  Rajas  followed  the  example  and 
were  rewarded  in  like  manner.  Akbar  thus  brought  a  new 
political  element  into  existence;  and  the  support  which  he 
derived  from  the  princes  of  Rajputana  enabled  him  to  estab- 
lish and  consolidate  an  empire. 

The  Rana  of  Chitor,  however,  held  out  against  all  threats 
and  temptations.  He  preferred  death  to  dishonor.  In  1567 
the  city  of  Chitor  was  environed  by  the  army  of  Akbar. 
The  Rajputs  saw  that  there  was  no  hope  of  deliverance, 
and  performed  the  awful  rite  of  Johur.  The  women  threw 
themselves  on  burning  piles,  while  the  men  put  on  saffron 
garments  and  perished  sword  hi  hand.  Chitor  was  reduced 
to  a  ruin.  Sir  Thomas  Roe  saw  it  fifty  years  afterward.  It 
contained  a  hundred  temples  and  innumerable  houses,  but 
not  a  human  inhabitant  was  there. 

The  very  name  of  Chitor  was  blotted  out  of  the  after  his- 
tory of  Rajputana.  The  Rana  was  named  Udai  Singh.  He 
sought  a  refuge  in  the  Aravulli  hills,  where  he  founded  the 
city  of  Udaipur.  Henceforth  he  was  known  as  the  Rana 
of  Udaipur,  or  Oodeypore.  But  Chitor  was  never  for- 
gotten. So  long  as  Chitor  was  a  widowed  city,  the  Rana 
bound  himself  and  his  successors  never  to  twist  their  beards, 
or  eat  from  gold  or  silver,  or  sleep  upon  anything  but  straw. 
To  this  day  the  memory  of  the  interdict  is  preserved  in  the 
palace  at  Udaipur.  The  Rana  never  twists  his  beard.  He 
eats  from  gold  and  silver,  but  there  are  leaves  beneath  the 
dishes.  He  sleeps  upon  a  bed,  but  there  is  a  scattering  of 
straw  below. 

Meanwhile  the  Rajput  princes,  who  had  been  hated  as 
idolaters  since  the  days  of  Mahmud,  were  treated  by  Akbar 
as  honored  and  valued  friends.  The  marriages  of  the  Padi- 
shah with  their  daughters  converted  them  into  kinsmen  of 
the  Moghul.  Akbar  especially  employed  the  Rajputs  to 
maintain  his  ascendency  over  the  Afghans,  the  bigoted 
and  inveterate  foes  of  the  Hindus.  The  history  is  obscure; 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  163 

and  to  all  appearance  has  been  purposely  obscured.  But  it 
is  certain  that  one  Rajput  kinsman  was  appointed  Viceroy  of 
the  Punjab;  another  commanded  the  Rajput  army  against 
the  Afghans  of  Kabul;  while  one  Rajput  Raja  of  renown 
was  appointed  Viceroy  of  Bihar  and  Bengal,  which  had  been 
at  the  mercy  of  Afghan  chieftains  from  a  remote  antiquity. 
The  historian  of  Akbar  tells  us  that  these  Rajas  proved  able 
rulers;  but  in  truth  nothing  is  known  of  the  working  of 
Akbar's  policy,  beyond  the  bare  fact  that  he  employed  the 
Rajputs  to  overawe  the  Afghans. 

Henceforth  there  were  two  aristocracies  in  the  Moghul 
empire,  and  two  armies.  Each  was  distinct  from  the  other, 
and  acted  as  a  balance  against  the  other.  The  one  was  Mo- 
ghul and  Muhammadan ;  the  other  was  Rajput  and  Hindu. 

The  Moghul  aristocracy  was  one  of  white-complexioned 
foreigners,  chiefly  Persians,  who  went  by  the  common  name 
of  Moghuls.  The  Moghuls  had  no  hereditary  nobility  out- 
side the  royal  family.  The  Padishah  was  the  sole  fountain 
of  honor,  and  the  fountain  of  all  honor.  He  gave  rank  at 
will,  and  all  rank  was  military  rank.  He  gave  titles  at  will, 
and  every  title  was  associated  with  the  idea  of  loyalty.  The 
emoluments  took  the  form  of  military  pay.  Every  grandee 
was  appointed  to  command  a  certain  number  of  horse;  but 
he  rarely  maintained  more  than  a  third  of  the  number,  and 
received  payment  for  the  whole.  Rank  and  title  might  be 
given  in  a  moment,  and  in  a  moment  they  might  be  swept 
away. 

Every  Moghul  noble  and  officer  was  entirely  dependent 
on  the  Padishah.  Their  lives  and  property  were  at  his  dis- 
posal. He  was  the  heir  to  the  wealth  of  every  one  of  his 
grandees,  and  wives  and  families  of  men  of  the  highest  rank 
were  sometimes  reduced  to  beggary.  Hereditary  nobility 
was  thus  unknown  to  the  Moghuls.  In  one  generation  an 
Amir,  or  grandee  of  the  first  order,  might  hold  a  high  com- 
mand, and  enjoy  a  princely  income.  His  grandsons  might 
be  brown-complexioned  men  serving  in  the  ranks  as  common 
soldiers. 


164  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

The  Amirs  were  the  highest  class  of  nobles,  the  grandees 
of  the  empire.1  They  might  be  made  governors,  viceroys, 
or  ministers.  A  second  class  was  known  as  Mansubdars, 
and  a  third  class  as  Ahadis;  but  these  were  military 
officers.  One  and  all  were  little  better  than  slaves  of  the 
Padishah. 

The  Rajputs  formed  a  hereditary  aristocracy  on  a  feudal 
basis.  They  held  their  lands  in  return  for  military  service, 
and  all  commands  were  hereditary.  The  vassal  served  his 
lord,  the  lord  his  Raja,  and  the  Raja  his  suzerain.  When 
Akbar  became  suzerain  in  the  room  of  the  Rana,  he  raised 
the  Rajas  to  the  rank  of  Amirs,  and  sometimes  conferred 
the  title  of  Raja  on  his  grandees.4 

The  religious  antagonism  between  Muhammadan  and 
Hindu  was  a  positive  gain  to  Akbar.  Muhammadans  could 
not  always  be  trusted  in  a  war  against  Muhammadan  rebels ; 
and  any  scruples  about  fighting  fellow-Muhammadans  were 
a  hindrance  to  Akbar  in  the  suppression  of  a  revolt.  But  no 
such  scruples  existed  between  Muhammadans  and  Hindus. 
Muhammadans  were  always  ready  to  fight  idolatrous  Rajas. 
The  Rajputs,  on  the  other  hand,  were  always  ready  to  fight 
Muhammadan  rebels ;  and  they  gloried  especially  in  fighting 
their  hereditary  enemies,  the  bigoted  Afghans,  who  had 
driven  their  forefathers  from  their  ancient  thrones  on  the 
Ganges  and  Jumna. 

Abkar  has  often  been  described  by  contemporaries.  He 
was  proud  and  arrogant  like  all  Moghuls,  but  clement  and 
affable.  He  was  tall  and  handsome,  broad  in  the  chest  and 
long  in  the  arms.  His  complexion  was  ruddy  and  nut- 
brown.  He  had  a  good  appetite  and  digestion,  but  was 
sparing  as  regards  wine  and  flesh  meat.  He  was  remark- 
able for  strength  and  courage.  He  would  spring  on  the  backs 
of  elephants  who  had  killed  their  keepers,  and  compel  them 


1  In  old  books  of  travel  the  Amirs  are  called  Urarahs  and  Omrahs. 
9  It  is  not  quite  certain  that  the  title  of  Raja  was  conferred  by  Akbar ;  it 
was  certainly  conferred  by  his  successors. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  165 

to  do  his  bidding.  He  delighted  in  every  kind  of  sport ;  in 
fights  between  buffaloes,  cocks,  harts,  rams  and  elephants; 
in  the  performances  of  wrestlers,  fencers,  dancers,  and  actors 
of  comedies,  as  well  as  in  those  of  trained  elephants.  He 
often  despatched  serious  business  in  the  midst  of  these  spec- 
tacles. He  was  very  fond  of  hunting.  He  had  no  hunting 
dogs,  but  ^ept  tame  antelopes  with  nets  fastened  to  their 
horns  to  entangle  wild  ones;  also  tame  panthers  to  take 
other  wild  beasts.  He  surrounded  a  whole  wood  with  hunt- 
ers, and  then  sent  beaters  into  the  jungle  to  drive  out  the 
game. 

All  this  while  Akbar  was  outwardly  a  Muhammadan. 
Thus  he  made  a  vow  that  on  the  birth  of  a  son  he  would 
walk  on  foot  to  the  shrine  of  a  Muhammadan  saint  at  Ajmir. 
In  1570  a  son  was  born,  who  was  named  Selim,  but  after- 
ward succeeded  to  the  throne  under  the  title  of  Jehangir. 
Akbar  accordingly  walked  on  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine,  and 
paid  his  devotions  to  the  saint,  and  built  a  mosque  at  Ajmir. 
Even  his  Rajput  brides  were  required  to  say  the  formula  of 
Islam  as  they  entered  the  zenana — "There  is  no  God  but 
Allah,  and  Muhammad  is  the  prophet  of  Allah."  But  hav- 
ing thus  made  a  show  of  being  converted,  the  Hindu  prin- 
cesses did  as  they  pleased.  They  introduced  idols  and  Brah- 
mans  into  the  zenana,  and  offered  sacrifices  to  their  idols; 
and  at  last  Akbar  joined  in  the  idol  worship  of  his  wives, 
like  Solomon  of  old. 

In  process  of  time  Akbar  came  in  collision  with  orthodox 
Muhammadan  doctors.  In  Muhammadan  states,  the  laws 
are  supposed  to  be  based  on  the  Koran.  Thus  law  and 
religion  are  blended  together,  and  eminent  lawyers  are  often 
eminent  divines.  This  class  is  always  numerous  at  the 
capital;  for  judges,  magistrates,  and  law  officers  in  general 
are  chosen  from  among  these  learned  doctors.  The  whole 
body  is  known  by  the  collective  name  of  Ulama ;  and  occa- 
sionally they  assemble  and  discuss  points  of  law.  The  opin- 
ions of  the  Ulama  have  great  weight  in  a  Muhammadan 
court,  and  will  often  influence  the  decisions  of  the  Sultan. 


166  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

About  1675  an  ambitious  young  scholar,  named  Abul 
Fazl,  was  introduced  to  Akbar,  and  soon  found  favor  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Padishah.  He  was  a  born  courtier,  and 
by  steadily  administering  to  the  vanity  of  Akbar  he  became 
his  minister  and  confidant.  He  was  anxious  to  master  all 
religions.  To  use  his  own  language,  he  longed  to  study  the 
great  religions  of  the  world  at  their  fountain-heads;  to  sit 
at  the  feet  of  the  Christian  padres  of  Goa,  the  Buddhist 
monks  of  Thibet,  and  the  Parsi  priests  who  were  learned  hi 
the  Zendavesta.  He  imbued  the  mind  of  Akbar  with  a  like 
curiosity.  At  the  same  time  he  had  good  reasons  for  hating 
the  Ulama;  they  had  persecuted  his  father  and  driven  him 
into  exile;  they  would  have  persecuted  himself  in  like  man- 
ner, had  they  not  been  afraid  of  Akbar.  They  were  igno- 
rant, bigoted,  and  puffed  up  with  pride  and  orthodoxy. 

Akbar,  like  other  Oriental  sovereigns,  was  fond  of  listen- 
ing to  religious  controversies.  He  held  assemblies  on  Thurs- 
day evenings  especially  to  hear  different  members  of  the 
Ulama  dispute  in  his  presence.  At  first  the  proceedings 
were  conducted  with  the  utmost  decorum.  After  a  while 
the  disputants  became  accustomed  to  the  Padishah,  and 
spoke  with  more  freedom  and  greater  warmth.  At  last 
one  evening  there  was  an  uproar,  and  learned  men  reviled 
one  another  in  the  very  presence  of  their  sovereign. 

Abul  Fazl  was  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  mischief.  He 
was  anxious  to  degrade  the  Ulama  in  the  eyes  of  Akbar; 
and  no  mode  was  so  effective  as  that  of  involving  them  in 
religious  controversy.  He  introduced  subjects  which  he 
knew  could  only  end  in  wrangling.  He  introduced  others, 
like  Akbar's  marriages,  which  placed  the  learned  doctors  on 
the  horns  of  a  dilemma.  If  they  sought  to  please  the  Padi- 
shah they  sinned  against  the  Koran;  and  if  they  stuck  to 
the  Koran  they  offended  the  Padishah.  One  orthodox  magis- 
trate spoke  out  conscientiously  against  the  marriages,  and 
was  removed  from  his  post.  In  this  way  the  Ulama  were 
ruined  in  the  eyes  of  Akbar;  they  drifted  into  disgrace  and 
ruin ;  they  had  cursed  one  another  in  their  speech,  and  prob- 


MUHAMMAD  AN    INDIA  167 

ably  in  their  hearts  they  were  all  agreed  in  cursing  Abul 
Fazl. 

Meanwhile  Akbar  was  led  by  Abul  Fazl  to  believe  that 
he  was  a  far  better  judge  in  religious  matters,  and  especially 
in  religious  controversies,  than  the  bigoted  body  of  doctors 
that  made  up  the  Ulama.  Akbar  eagerly  caught  at  the 
idea.  He  was  anxious  to  throw  off  the  influence  of  the 
Ulama,  who  would  have  persuaded  him  to  persecute  her- 
etics and  Hindus.  He  was  resolved,  like  Henry  the  Eighth, 
to  become  himself  the  supreme  authority  in  all  religious 
matters. 

The  result  of  all  these  experiences  was  that  Akbar  be- 
came hostile  to  the  Muhammadan  religion.  He  broke  up 
the  power  of  the  Ulama,  and  banished  all  refractory  profes- 
sors to  the  remote  regions  of  Central  Asia.  He  conversed 
with  teachers  of  other  religions — Brahmans,  Buddhists,  and 
Parsis.  He  sent  a  letter  to  the  Portuguese  viceroy  at  Goa, 
requesting  that  Christian  fathers  might  be  sent  to  Agra  to 
teach  him  the  tenets  of  Christianity.  The  religious  world 
at  Goa  was  thrown  into  a  ferment  at  the  idea  of  converting 
the  Great  Moghul.  Three  fathers  duly  arrived  at  Agra,  and 
were  permitted  to  build  a  church  and  perform  Christian 
rites  without  molestation ;  privileges  which  would  have  been 
accorded,  perhaps,  in  no  other  Muhammadan  city.  Both 
Akbar  and  his  minister  Abul  Fazl  professed  the  utmost 
respect  for  Christianity;  Akbar  even  entered  the  church 
and  prostrated  before  the  image  of  the  Saviour;  but  neither 
the  Padishah  nor  his  minister  were  sufficiently  impressed 
with  the  truths  of  Christianity  to  become  baptized. 

Akbar  indulged  in  religious  experiences  until  he  believed 
himself  to  be  a  representative  of  deity.  The  sixteenth  cent- 
ury was  a  period  of  great  excitement  throughout  the  Mu- 
hammadan world.  It  was  currently  believed  that  at  the 
end  of  a  thousand  years  from  the  Hijra,  or  flight  of  Muham- 
mad, a  new  prophet  would  appear  to  convert  the  world  and 
usher  in  a  new  millennium.  The  "Lord  of  the  period,"  as 
he  was  called,  was  expected  to  appear  in  1591-92;  and  many 


168  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

pious  Muhammadans  prepared  for  his  coming  by  fasting  and 
prayer.1 

In  the  first  instance  Akbar  was  induced  by  Abul  Fazl  to 
believe  that  he  himself  was  the  "Lord  of  the  period."  Sub- 
sequently, when  his  faith  in  Islam  had  died  out,  the  idea 
took  another  form.  He  founded  a  new  religion  known  as  the 
Divine  Faith.  He  permitted  himself  to  be  worshipped  as  a 
type  of  royalty  emanating  from  God;  or,  to  use  the  symbol- 
ical language  of  Abul  Fazl,  to  be  adored  as  a  ray  of  the 
divine  sun,  the  supreme  soul,  that  animated  the  universe. 
Every  morning  he  worshipped  the  sun  in  public.  At  the 
same  time  he  was  himself  worshipped  by  the  ignorant  mul- 
titude, who  were  induced  to  believe  that  he  could  work 
miracles  and  cure  diseases. 

All  this  while,  however,  Akbar  sought  to  better  his  sub- 
jects by  measures  of  toleration  as  well  as  by  improved  social 
laws.  He  permitted  the  use  of  wine,  but  punished  intoxica- 
tion. He  gratified  his  Hindu  subjects  by  prohibiting  the 
slaughter  of  cows.  He  forbade  the  marriage  of  boys  before 
they  were  sixteen,  and  of  girls  before  they  were  fourteen. 
He  permitted  the  marriage  of  Hindu  widows,  and  did  his 
best  to  put  a  stop  to  widow  burning.  In  after  life  he  tried 
to  check  the  practice  of  polygamy  among  the  Muhammadans. 

But  the  character  of  Akbar  had  a  dark  side.  He  was 
sometimes  harsh  and  cruel.  He  was  jealous  of  his  author- 
ity;  suspicious  of  plots  and  rebellions;  and  resorted  to  strong 
measures  which  are  revolting  to  civilization.  His  persecu- 
tion of  Muhammadan  doctors  was  unpardonable.  He  is, 
moreover,  charged  with  keeping  a  poisoner  and  getting  rid 
of  his  enemies  in  this  manner  without  remorse.  Such  prac- 
tices are  known  to  have  been  common  to  his  successors ;  and 
there  are  strong  grounds  for  believing  that  they  were  equally 
common  during  the  reign  of  Akbar. 

The  daily  life  of  Akbar  and  his  court  may  be  gathered 


1  For  a  further  account  of  this  remarkable  movement,  the  reader  is  referred 
to  the  larger  History  of  India,  vol.  iv.  chap.  iv. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  169 

from  three  institutions  of  Moghul  origin.  They  were  known 
as  the  Jharokha,  the  Durbar,  and  the  Ghusal-khana ;  in 
English  parlance  they  would  be  known  as  the  window,  the 
audience  hall,  and  the  dressing-room. 1  Details  of  these  in- 
stitutions will  appear  in  the  after  history;  for  the  present  it 
will  suffice  to  describe  their  general  character. 

The  Jharokha  was  a  window  at  the  back  of  the  palace, 
which  overlooked  a  plain  below.  Every  morning  Akbar 
appeared  at  this  window  and  worshipped  the  sun,  while  the 
multitude  thronged  the  plain  below  and  worshipped  Akbar. 
Later  in  the  morning,  generally  about  noon,  Akbar  appeared 
at  the  window,  and  was  entertained  with  the  combats  of 
animals  in  the  plain  below.8  Sometimes  he  inspected  troops, 
horses,  elephants,  and  camels,  from  this  window. 

The  Durbar  was  the  hall  of  audience,  situated  in  a  large 
court  at  the  entrance  to  the  palace.  Every  afternoon  Akbar 
sat  upon  his  throne  at  the  back  of  the  Durbar  hall,  and  gave 
audience  to  all  comers.  Here  he  disposed  of  petitions,  ad- 
ministered justice,  and  received  Rajas,  Amirs,  and  ambassa- 
dors. All  the  grandees  at  court  were  bound  to  attend  the 
Padishah  at  the  Jharokha  and  Durbar. 

The  Ghusal-khana  was  a  private  assembly  held  in  the 
evening  in  a  pavilion  behind  the  Durbar  court.  None  were 
admitted  excepting  the  ministers  and  such  grandees  as  re- 
ceived special  invitations.  Sometimes  the  gathering  resem- 
bled a  privy  council ;  at  other  times  it  was  an  assembly  of 
grandees  and  learned  men.  The  assembly  of  the  Ulama  on 
Thursday  evenings  would,  probably,  have  been  held  in  this 
pavilion,  but  it  was  not  large  enough.  Consequently  another 
pavilion  was  prepared  expressly  for  their  reception. 

Akbar  is  famous  for  having  introduced  a  land  settlement 
into  his  dominions.  It  should  be  explained  that  under  Mo- 

1  The  G-husal-khana  was  literally  the  bathroom,  and  contained  a  large  bath 
decorated  with  jewels.  The  idea  of  entertaining  visitors  in  a  bathroom  is  appar- 
ently peculiar  to  Moghuls. 

*  It  is  the  custom  in  India  among  the  wealthier  classes  to  perform  their  de- 
votions at  early  morning,  and  then  to  take  a  breakfast  and  a  siesta.  This  will 
account  for  the  late  hours  kept  at  the  evening  assemblies. 

X— 8  INDIA.    VOL.  I. 


170  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

ghul  rule  all  lands  were  treated  as  the  property  of  the  Pa- 
dishah. They  were  divided  into  two  classes,  Khalisa  and 
Jaghir.  The  Khalisa  lands  were  those  held  by  the  Padishah 
as  his  own  demesnes,  and  paid  a  yearly  rent  to  him.  The 
Jaghirs  were  estates  given  in  lieu  of  salaries.  In  this  way 
Jaghirs  were  given  to  governors,  ministers  and  grandees; 
they  were  also  given  to  queens  and  princesses  in  the  im- 
perial harem.  Every  Jaghir  paid  a  fixed  yearly  rent  to  the 
Padishah ;  and  all  that  could  be  collected  above  this  amount 
belonged  to  the  Jaghirdar,  or  holder  of  the  Jaghir.1 

Akbar  employed  a  Hindu  named  Todar  Mai  to  make  a 
revenue  settlement ;  in  other  words,  to  fix  the  yearly  pay- 
ments to  be  made  by  holders  of  the  land.  All  lands  were 
measured,  whether  cultivated  or  uncultivated.  Every  piece 
of  land  yielding  a  yearly  income  of  twenty-five  thousand 
rupees  was  placed  under  the  charge  of  an  officer  known  as 
a  Krori ;  the  object  being  to  bring  uncultivated  lands  into 
cultivation.  The  Krories  are  charged  with  every  kind  of 
rapacity  and  oppression ;  but  the  settlement  of  Todar  Mai 
is  lauded  to  this  day.  It  was  the  one  thing  to  which  land- 
holders and  cultivators  could  appeal  against  the  rapacity  of 
revenue  collectors. 

Toward  the  end  of  his  reign  Akbar  conquered  Kabul  and 
Kashmir.  Kabul,  however,  was  a  dangerous  acquisition, 
from  the  lawlessness  of  the  people;  and  on  one  occasion 
Akbar  lost  an  army  there,  but  the  details  are  imperfectly 
known.  Kashmir  proved  a  more  acceptable  conquest ;  and 
Akbar  and  his  successors  occasionally  resorted  to  a  retreat 
among  the  mountains  of  Kashmir,  as  a  pleasant  change  from 
the  heats  of  Hindustan. 


-  Land  tenures  in  the  Moghul  empire  involve  contradictions  not  easily  ex- 
plained. The  husbandman  often  possessed  a  few  fields,  and  had  the  power  of 
selling  and  bequeathing  them,  at  the  same  tune  that  the  district  in  which  those 
fields  were  included  was  annually  let  out  by  the  government  to  a  renter,  who 
paid  a  certain  sum  of  money  to  the  lord  of  the  country,  and  received  from  the 
cultivator  a  certain  part  of  his  harvests.  To  seize  such  lands  was  regarded  as 
the  height  of  injustice.  The  Moghul  was  only  anxious  to  keep  down  the  Amirs, 
not  to  deprive  the  smaller  landowners  of  their  hereditary  rights. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  171 

Akbar  was  always  auxious  to  establish  his  sovereignty 
over  the  Muhammadan  Sultans  of  the  Dekhan.  The  battle 
of  Talikota,  in  which  the  Sultans  defeated  the  Maharaja  of 
Vijayanagar,  was  fought  in  1565,  being  the  ninth  year  of 
the  reign  of  Akbar.  Some  years  afterward  the  Padishah 
sent  ambassadors  to  the  Sultans  of  the  Dekhan,  inviting 
them  to  accept  him  as  their  suzerain,  and  promising  to  up- 
hold them  on  their  thrones  and  prevent  all  internecine  wars. 
One  and  all,  however,  refused  to  pay  allegiance  to  the 
Moghul. 

During  the  latter  part  of  his  reign  Akbar  conquered  the 
northern  half  of  the  Dekhan,  including  Ahmadnagar  and 
Berar,  and  would  probably  have  conquered  the  remaining 
kingdoms  of  Bijapur  and  Golkonda,  when  he  was  called 
away  by  the  rebellion  of  his  eldest  son. 

The  rebellion  of  Prince  Selim,  better  known  in  after  years 
by  the  name  of  Jehangir,  was  apparently  a  Muhammadan 
insurrection  against  the  apostasy  of  Akbar.  It  was  marked 
by  the  assassination  of  Abul  Fazl.  The  rebellion  was  sup- 
pressed, and  Akbar  became  outwardly  reconciled  to  his  son; 
but  he  was  apparently  a  changed  man.  He  abandoned  scep- 
ticism and  heresy,  and  returned  to  the  Muhammadan  faith. 
He  died  in  October,  1605,  aged  sixty-four;  but  there  are 
strong  grounds  for  believing  that  he  was  poisoned  at  the 
instigation  of  Jehangir.1 

3  For  proof  of  this  poisoning,  see  the  larger  History  of  India,  vol.  iv.  chap.  iv. 


172  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 


CHAPTER   V 

MOGHUL  EMPIRE— JEHANGIR  AND   SHAH 
JEHAN    x 

A.D.  1605  TO  1658 

JEHANGIR  succeeded  Akbar  at  the  age  of  thirty-five. 
He  inherited  his  father's  vices,  but  had  none  of  his 
virtues.  He  was  not  only  harsh  and  cruel,  but  took 
pleasure  in  the  sufferings  of  his  victims.  He  drank  wine 
like  a  Scythian,  and  was  especially  fond  of  drinking  bouts 
at  his  evening  assemblies.  Above  all,  he  was  the  slave  of 
a  crafty  intriguing  woman  named  Nur  Mahal. 

Jehangir  had  not  been  the  favorite  of  his  father.  He 
seems  to  have  joined  the  Muhammadan  party  against  his 
father.  Akbar's  favorite  was  his  grandson  Khuzru,  the 
eldest  son  of  Jehangir,  and  he  had  intended  that  Khuzru 
should  succeed  him  on  the  throne.  Khuzru  was  a  young 
prince  of  Akbar's  way  of  thinking,  inclined  to  Christianity, 
and  a  great  friend  of  the  Rajputs.  Jehangir  had  always 
been  jealous  of  Khuzru;  and  it  was  this  jealousy  of  Khuzru 
that  led  him  to  rebel  during  the  lifetime  of  Akbar. 

From  the  day  that  Jehangir  ascended  the  throne,  Khuzru 
was  in  mortal  fear.  He  expected  to  be  strangled,  or  poisoned, 
or,  at  any  rate,  to  be  deprived  of  sight,  so  as  to  be  cut  off 
from  all  hopes  of  the  throne.  At  last  he  fled  in  a  panic  from 
the  palace  at  Agra,  and  hurried  to  Lahore.  On  the  way 
he  was  joined  by  large  numbers  of  Rajputs,  but  was  hotly 
pursued  by  Jehangir.  He  tried  to  escape  into  Persia,  as 
Humayun  had  done ;  but  he  was  cruelly  betrayed  and  sent 
in  fetters  to  his  father. 

The  revenge  of  Jehangir  upon  the  rebels  was  horrible 


MUHAMMAD  AN   INDIA  173 

and  sickening.  It  resembled  those  cruel  scenes  of  slaughter 
which  are  to  be  seen  on  Assyrian  monuments.  Hundreds 
were  flayed  alive  after  Moghul  fashion.  Hundreds  were 
impaled  on  sharp  stakes,  and  left  to  die  in  lingering  torture. 
The  wretched  Khuzru  was  conducted  through  the  lines  of 
victims,  and  forced  to  hear  the  shrieks  of  his  followers,  and 
witness  their  dying  agonies.  His  life  was  spared,  but  he 
was  doomed  to  years  of  captivity  and  suffering. 

Meanwhile  Jehangir  became  the  slave  of  Nur  Mahal. 
Various  stories  are  told  of  the  early  adventures  of  this  cele- 
brated princess.  According  to  general  rumor,  she  was  a 
Persian  girl  of  low  birth,  and  Jehangir  fell  in  love  with  her 
during  the  lifetime  of  his  father.  Akbar  objected  to  such 
connections ;  and  the  girl  was  given  in  marriage  to  a  Per- 
sian, and  went  with  her  husband  into  Bengal.  When  Je- 
hangir came  to  the  throne  he  sent  for  the  girl;  but  her  hus- 
band raised  some  natural  objections,  and  was  murdered  in 
a  fray.  The  widow  was  conducted  to  Agra,  and  for  a  long 
time  refused  to  listen  to  Jehangir.  At  last  she  consented  to 
become  his  queen ;  and  her  brother  Asof  Khan  was  appointed 
minister.  She  herself  is  best  known  by  the  title  of  Nur 
Mahal,  or  the  "light  of  the  harem." 

During  the  early  years  of  the  reign  of  Jehangir,  the  En- 
glish began  to  appear  in  the  Indian  seas.  The  East  India 
Company  had  been  formed  in  1599,  in  the  lifetime  of  Akbar. 
It  obtained  its  first  charter  from  Queen  Elizabeth  in  1600, 
under  which  the  Company  were  to  monopolize  all  the  En- 
glish trade  in  the  Indian  seas.  English  ships  sailed  round 
the  Cape  as  the  Portuguese  had  done;  but  they  could  do 
nothing  in  Malabar,  for  the  ports  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
Portuguese.  They  sailed  northward  to  Surat  within  the 
Moghul's  territory.  Surat  was  situated  near  the  mouth  of 
the  river  Tapti,  about  a  hundred  and  eighty  miles  to  the 
north  of  Bombay. 

The  English,  however,  could  do  but  little  business  at 
Surat.  The  Portuguese  thwarted  them  in  every  way ;  bribed 
the  Moghul  governor  of  Surat  to  prevent  the  English  from 


174  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

buying  cargoes;  jeered  at  James  I.  as  a  king  of  fishermen, 
and  scoffed  at  Great  Britain  as  a  contemptible  island.  In 
fact,  the  Portuguese  treated  the  English  at  Surat  much  in 
the  same  way  as  they  themselves  had  been  treated  a  cent- 
ury before  by  the  Moors  of  Malabar.  The  result  was  that 
for  years  the  English  and  Portuguese  were  natural  enemies, 
and  fought  one  another  to  the  death  whenever  their  ships 
met  on  the  high  seas. 

A  sea  captain  named  Hawkins  managed  to  make  his  way 
from  Surat  to  Agra  on  a  sort  of  mission  to  the  Padishah. 
Jehangir  took  a  fancy  to  the  Englishman ;  promoted  him  to 
the  rank  of  commander  of  four  hundred  horse;  and  drank 
wine  with  him  every  night  in  the  Ghusal-khana,  and  asked 
him  a  thousand  questions  about  Europe  and  its  princes.  In 
the  first  instance  the  head  of  Hawkins  was  turned  by  the 
favor  shown  to  him  by  the  Great  Moghul;  but  his  very  suc- 
cess created  numerous  enemies.  The  Portuguese  had  friends 
in  the  Moghul  court,  and  managed  to  excite  the  suspicions 
of  Jehangir  against  the  Englishman.  The  Moghul  governor 
of  Surat  raised  an  outcry  against  Hawkins;  he  had  bought 
many  things  of  Hawkins  and  had  refused  to  pay  for  them. 
One  Amir  portentously  declared  in  the  Durbar  hall  that  if 
once  the  English  got  a  footing  in  India  they  would  soon  be- 
come masters.  Hawkins  found  that  he  could  get  no  redress 
and  no  favors,  and  soon  made  his  escape  from  Agra. 

The  English  were  anxious  to  buy  goods,  and  willing  to 
pay  for  them;  but  the  Moghul  merchants  were  afraid  to  sell 
lest  the  Portuguese  should  seize  their  ships  on  the  high  seas; 
and  for  a  long  time  they  refused  to  deal  with  the  English 
traders.  At  last  the  English  were  provoked  to  take  the  law 
into  their  own  hands.  They  did  not  plunder  Muhammadan 
ships  and  scuttle  them,  as  the  Portuguese  had  done  a  cent- 
ury before ;  but  they  attacked  Moghul  ships  in  the  Red  Sea, 
seized  the  cargoes,  and  paid  for  them  at  the  market  rates 
which  prevailed  at  Surat.  In  fact,  there  was  lawless  fighting 
on  all  sides ;  and  to  make  matters  worse,  other  English  ships 
appeared  in  the  eastern  seas  in  defiance  of  the  Company's 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  175 

charter;  and  these  interlopers  committed  acts  of  piracy  on 
Moghul  ships,  which  gave  the  English  a  bad  name  in  the 
court  of  Jehangir. 

Two  or  three  years  afterward  an  English  ambassador 
named  Sir  Thomas  Roe  was  sent  to  the  Great  Moghul  by 
James  the  First.  Roe  was  a  far  greater  man  than  Haw- 
kins ;  he  was  a  lord  ambassador,  and  had  a  secretary,  a  chap- 
lain, and  a  retinue.  He  landed  at  Surat  in  1615,  attended  by 
a  guard  of  honor  made  up  of  captains,  merchants,  and  sail- 
ors. The  English  ships  in  the  river  were  decked  with  flags 
and  streamers,  and  welcomed  the  lord  ambassador  with  a 
salute  of  forty-eight  guns.  Sir  Thomas  Roe  was  to  make 
a  treaty  with  Jehangir,  to  explain  the  difference  between 
the  ships  of  the  East  India  Company  and  those  of  interlop- 
ers, and  to  establish  the  Company's  trade  on  a  sound  footing. 

Sir  Thomas  Roe  experienced  some  rudeness  at  landing 
from  the  Moghul  officials  at  the  Custom-house.  They  had 
little  respect  for  his  character  as  ambassador,  and  persisted 
in  searching  all  his  servants  and  opening  all  his  boxes,  in- 
cluding those  which  contained  the  presents  for  Jehangir. 
At  length,  after  a  month's  delay  at  Surat,  Roe  procured 
carriage  and  escort  as  far  as  Burhanpur,  about  two  hundred 
and  twenty  miles  due  east  of  Surat.  Burhanpur  was  the 
headquarters  of  the  Moghul  army  of  the  Dekhan;  and  here 
Roe  expected  to  secure  fresh  carriage  and  escort  to  enable 
him  to  go  as  far  as  the  imperial  camp,  which  had  been  re- 
cently removed  from  Agra  to  Ajmir. 

Roe  was  disgusted  with  what  he  saw  during  his  journey 
from  Surat  to  Burhanpur.  The  country  was  desolate ;  the 
towns  and  villages  were  built  of  mud ;  and  there  was  not  a 
house  fit  to  lodge  in.  At  one  place  he  was  guarded  with 
thirty  horsemen  and  twenty  musketeers  because  of  highway- 
men. In  fact,  he  was  travelling  through  Kandeish,  a  prov- 
ince partly  in  Hindustan  and  partly  in  the  Dekhan,  which 
has  been  infested  by  Bhils  and  brigands  down  to  modern 
times. 

At  this  period  the  Great  Moghul  was  carrying  on  a  war 


176  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

in  the  Dekhan.  A  black  Abyssinian  named  Malik  Amber 
had  risen  to  power  in  Ahmadnagar.  Abyssinians,  in  spite 
of  their  color,  were  respected  on  account  of  their  strength 
and  bravery,  and  often  played  important  parts  in  political 
revolutions  in  India.  Malik  Amber  set  up  a  prince  of  the 
fallen  house  of  Ahmadnagar,  secured  help  from  Bijapur  and 
Golkonda,  and  compelled  the  Moghul  army  to  retreat  north- 
ward to  Burhanpur. 

The  Moghul  army  of  the  Dekhan  was  under  the  command 
of  Parwiz,  the  second  son  of  Jehangir.  Parwiz  was  a  drunken 
prince,  and  left  the  army  in  the  hands  of  an  officer  known  as 
the  Khan  Khanan,  or  Khan  of  Khans.  Meanwhile  the  Khan 
Khanan  took  bribes  from  the  different  Sultans  of  the  Dekhan, 
and  did  nothing.  At  times  he  tried  to  deceive  Jehangir  by 
feigning  to  attack  Ahmadnagar ;  but  his  treachery  was  al- 
ready suspected  by  the  Padishah. 

At  Burhanpur  Sir  Thomas  Roe  was  received  with  some 
show  by  the  head  of  the  police,  known  as  the  Kotwal.  He 
paid  a  visit  of  ceremony  to  Parwiz,  who  was  haughty  and 
arrogant  as  regards  ceremony,  but  otherwise  good-natured. 
Roe  found  him  sitting  in  a  gallery  under  a  canopy,  with  a 
platform  below  him,  railed  in  for  his  grandees. 

Roe  ascended  the  platform  and  saw  the  grandees  stand- 
ing below  the  prince  with  joined  hands,  like  so  many  slaves 
or  suppliants.  He  made  a  bow,  and  Parwiz  bowed  in  re- 
turn. He  would  have  ascended  the  gallery  to  speak  to  the 
prince,  but  was  stopped  by  a  secretary.  Parwiz,  however, 
was  ready  to  grant  every  request  as  fast  as  Roe  could  make 
it.  He  allowed  the  English  to  establish  a  factory  at  Bur- 
hanpur, and  promised  to  supply  carriage  and  escort  to  enable 
Roe  to  get  on  to  Agra.  He  received  Roe's  presents  very 
graciously,  especially  a  case  of  strong  liquors.  He  left  the 
gallery,  and  said  he  would  send  for  Roe  presently,  and  speak 
to  him  in  a  private  chamber.  Roe  waited  for  a  while,  and 
was  then  told  that  he  might  leave  the  palace.  He  learned 
afterward  that  Parwiz  had  opened  the  liquor  bottles,  and 
had  rapidly  become  too  drunk  to  speak  to  anybody. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  177 

The  road  from  Burhanpur  to  Ajmir  runs  through  the 
heart  of  Rajputana;  yet  Roe  had  few  adventures  on  the 
way  beyond  a  sharp  attack  of  fever.  He  paid  a  visit  to 
the  ruins  of  Chitor;  and  he  met  a  crack-brained  English- 
man named  Tom  Coryat,  who  had  undertaken  a  walking 
tour  through  Asia.  Coryat  was  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
travellers  of  his  time.  He  had  gone  on  foot  from  Jerusalem, 
through  Asiatic  Turkey,  Persia,  and  Afghanistan,  to  the 
cities  of  Delhi  and  Agra,  at  a  cost  of  about  a  penny  a  day ; 
and  being  regarded  as  a  madman,  no  one  interfered  with 
him.  When  he  met  Roe  he  was  going  to  Surat,  where  he 
subsequently  died  from  drinking  too  much  sack,  and  was 
buried  in  the  outskirts  of  the  city. 

In  January,  1616,  Sir  Thomas  Roe  had  his  first  audience 
with  Jehangir.  He  describes  the  Durbar  hall  as  resembling 
a  London  theatre.  The  Padishah  was  sitting  on  his  throne 
at  one  end.  The  grandees  were  standing  on  a  platform  be- 
fore him  like  actors  on  a  stage ;  they  were  railed  off  in  three 
rows  according  to  their  respective  grades.  The  common 
people  formed  the  audience  or  groundlings,  who  looked  on 
from  behind  the  third  rail. 

There  was  at  first  a  question  of  prostration,  but  Roe  re- 
fused to  do  anything  of  the  kind,  and  the  point  was  waived. 
He  passed  the  three  rails,  making  a  profound  bow  at  each; 
and  was  admitted  among  the  grandees  of  the  first  grade. 
Jehangir  received  the  English  ambassador  with  princely 
condescension.  He  accepted  the  presents,  consisting  of  vir- 
ginals, knives,  an  embroidered  scarf,  a  rich  sword  and  an 
English  coach.  He  wanted  some  one  to  play  the  virginals, 
and  one  of  Roe's  retinue  complied  with  his  wish.  The 
coach  was  too  large  to  be  brought  into  the  Durbar  hall, 
but  Jehangir  sent  persons  to  look  at  it.  The  Padishah  then 
spoke  very  graciously  to  the  ambassador,  hoped  he  had  got 
rid  of  his  fever,  and  offered  to  send  him  his  own  physicians. 
Altogether  Roe  went  away  charmed  with  his  reception. 

"When  the  Durbar  was  over  Jehangir  showed  himself  to 
be  an  inquisitive  Moghul.  He  went  out  and  examined  the 


178  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

coach,  and  even  got  into  it  and  ordered  his  servants  to  draw 
it.  He  made  Roe's  English  servant  array  him  in  the  scarf 
and  sword,  English  fashion;  and  then  strutted  about  and 
drew  his  sword  and  brandished  it.  But  he  complained  to 
the  bystanders  that  the  presents  were  very  poor,  and  said 
that  the  King  of  England  ought  to  have  sent  him  jewels. 

Roe's  negotiations  proved  a  failure  throughout.  He 
wanted  too  much  from  the  Padishah.  Jehangir  was  will- 
ing to  issue  firmans  or  orders  to  all  local  officers  to  grant 
certain  privileges  to  the  English;  and  a  few  bribes  to  the 
local  officers  would  have  insured  attention  to  these  privi- 
leges, until  by  long  custom  they  had  hardened  into  rights. 
But  Roe  was  smitten  with  an  Englishman's  passion  for 
treaties.  He  wanted  a  treaty  signed  and  sealed,  which 
would  bind  the  Padishah  and  his  successors  forever,  while 
he  had  nothing  to  give  in  return  but  a  few  paltry  presents. 
As  it  was  he  wasted  two  years  in  negotiations,  and  never 
got  anything  beyond  firmans. 

The  history  of  the  Moghul  rule  at  this  period  is  very  sug- 
gestive. Jehangir  was  growing  more  and  more  suspicious 
of  the  Khan  Khanan.  Twice  he  tried  to  poison  him,  but 
failed.  He  recalled  Parwiz  from  the  Dekhan,  and  sent  him 
to  command  in  Bengal.  He  then  appointed  his  third  son, 
Prince  Shah  Jehan,  to  command  the  army  of  the  Dekhan. 
He  hesitated  to  recall  the  Khan  Khanan,  lest  the  latter 
should  break  out  into  rebellion  with  the  army  of  the 
Dekhan  at  his  heels. 

A  kinswoman  of  the  Khan  Khanan  was  in  the  imperial 
zenana,  and  Jehangir  consulted  her  on  the  subject.  He  pro- 
posed sending  a  dress  of  honor  to  the  Khan  Khanan  as  a 
token  of  forgiveness.  She  replied  that  Khan  Khanan  would 
suspect  the  dress  to  have  been  poisoned;  that  the  Khan 
Khanan  was  already  aware  that  Jehangir  had  on  two  sev- 
eral occasions  tried  to  poison  him.  Jehangir  made  no  at- 
tempt to  deny  the  charge;  he  only  suggested  that  he  should 
wear  the  dress  for  an  hour,  and  that  the  kinswoman  should 
inform  the  Khan  Khanan  accordingly.  She  replied  that  the 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  179 

Khan  Khanan  would  trust  neither  of  them.  Accordingly 
Jehangir  determined  to  go  in  person  to  the  Dekhan.1 

Sir  Thomas  Roe  saw  much  of  the  Moghul  court  during 
his  stay  at  Ajmir.  He  was  present  at  the  Nau-roz,  or  feast 
of  the  new  year,  when  the  Padishah  sat  upon  his  throne  in 
the  Durbar,  and  received  presents  of  great  value  from  all  his 
grandees.  He  was  present  at  the  cerebration  of  Jehangir's 
birthday  on  the  3d  of  September,  1616.  In  the  morning  the 
Padishah  was  weighed  six  times  against  gold  and  silver, 
silks  and  stuffs,  grain  and  butter;  and  all  the  things  that 
were  weighed  against  him  were  given  to  the  poor.  In  the 
afternoon  there  was  a  grand  procession  of  elephants  before 
the  Durbar. 

On  the  evening  of  the  birthday  there  was  a  drinking 
bout  in  the  Ghusal-khana.  Roe  was  sent  for  at  ten  o'clock 
at  night  after  he  had  gone  to  bed.  He  found  Jehangir  sit- 
ting cross-legged  on  a  little  throne,  arrayed  in  his  jewels. 
There  was  a  large  company  of  grandees,  and  numerous  gold 
and  silver  flagons,  and  all  present  were  ordered  to  drink. 
Every  one  got  drunk  excepting  Prince  Shah  Jehan,  the  min- 
ister Asof  Khan,  and  the  English  ambassador.  Jehangir 
scattered  rupees  to  the  multitude  below.  He  threw  about 
gold  and  silver  almonds  for  which  the  nobles  scrambled  like 
schoolboys.  At  last  he  dropped  off  to  sleep,  on  which  all 
the  lights  were  put  out,  and  the  company  were  left  to 
grope  their  way  out  of  the  Ghusal-khana  in  the  best  way 
they  could. 

On  one  occasion  a  hundred  thieves  were  brought  before 
Jehangir  in  the  Durbar  hall,  and  condemned  to  death  with- 
out further  trial.  They  were  butchered  and  exposed  in  the 
different  streets  of  Ajmir;  the  head  thief  being  torn  to  pieces 
by  dogs  in  front  of  Roe's  house. 

At  another  time  there  was  a  terrible  scene  in  the  Durbar 


1  All  that  Roe  tells  about  the  court  of  Jehangir  may  be  accepted  as  truth, 
as  nearly  everything  that  goes  on  in  the  zenana  of  a  Moghul  sovereign  is  soon 
known  outside.  Nothing  is  concealed  but  thoughts  or  emotions,  and  even  they 
are  often  betrayed. 


180  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

court.  Whenever  the  Padishah  commanded  his  nobles  to 
drink  wine,  they  were  bound  to  obey;  and  such  had  been  the 
case  on  the  evening  of  the  birthday.  If,  however,  Jehangir 
heard  that  a  grandee  had  been  drinking  on  any  other  occa- 
sion without  his  order,  the  offender  was  scourged  in  his 
presence.  One  night  Jehangir  gave  a  feast  to  the  Persian 
ambassador,  and  ordered  all  present  to  drink  wine.  Ac- 
cordingly, every  man  drank  to  the  health  of  the  Padishah, 
and  his  name  was  entered  in  a  register  according  to  custom. 
But  Jehangir  was  so  drunk  that  he  forgot  all  that  had 
passed.  Next  day  there  was  an  allusion  to  the  drinking, 
and  Jehangir  asked  who  had  given  the  order.  He  was 
told  that  the  paymaster  had  given  it;  an  answer  that  was 
always  returned  when  the  Padishah  thought  proper  to  for- 
get his  own  orders.  Jehangir  at  once  called  for  the  register, 
and  began  to  punish  the  offenders.  They  were  flogged  so 
unmercifully  that  some  were  left  for  dead;  and  there  was 
not  a  man  at  court,  not  even  a  father  or  a  son,  that  dared  to 
speak  a  word  in  behalf  of  the  sufferers. 

About  this  time  Roe  reported  to  London  that  Shah  Jehan 
was  plotting  the  death  of  his  elder  brother  Khuzru.  He 
mentioned  the  fact  as  a  warning  to  the  East  India  Company 
not  to  push  their  trade  too  far  into  the  interior.  The  strug- 
gle between  the  two  princes  might  throw  all  Hindustan  into 
a  ferment.  If  Khuzru  prevailed  the  English  would  be  gain- 
ers, because  he  loved  and  honored  Christianity.  If  Shah 
Jehan  prevailed  the  English  would  be  losers,  because  he 
hated  Christianity,  and  was  proud,  subtle,  false,  and  tyran- 
nical. 

In  November,  1616,  Jehangir  left  Ajmir  and  began  the 
journey  toward  the  south.  The  departure  was  a  grand  pro- 
cession of  elephants  and  palanquins,  radiant  with  jewels  and 
cloths  of  gold  and  silver.  At  setting  out  there  was  a  nota- 
ble incident.  Jehangir  stopped  at  the  door  where  his  eldest 
son  was  imprisoned,  and  called  for  him  to  come  out.  Khuzru 
appeared  and  made  his  reverence.  He  had  a  sword  and 
buckler  in  his  hand,  and  his  beard  hung  down  to  his  waist 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  181 

as  a  mark  of  disfavor.  He  accompanied  the  imperial  camp 
during  its  progress  through  Rajputana,  and  hopes  were  ex- 
pressed that  he  might  yet  succeed  to  the  throne  of  his  father. 

The  camp  of  the  Great  Moghul  was  like  a  moving  city. 
The  imperial  pavilions  formed  a  vast  palace  of  scarlet  can- 
vas, surrounded  by  scarlet  screens  or  walls  of  arras.  The 
pavilions  of  the  grandees  were  canvas  mansions  of  white, 
green,  and  mixed  colors ;  all  were  encompassed  by  screens, 
and  were  as  orderly  as  houses.  There  were  also  long  streets 
of  shops,  like  the  bazar  of  a  metropolis.  There  was  no  con- 
fusion of  any  kind,  for  all  the  tents  and  pavilions  were  laid 
out  and  set  up  in  the  same  order  day  by  day.  This  regu 
larity,  however,  disappeared  as  the  camp  moved  through 
Rajputana;  for  the  country  was  only  half  conquered,  and 
was  infested  by  robbers,  while  the  road  sometimes  lay 
through  forests  and  over  mountains. 

As  the  imperial  camp  advanced  further  south  some  alarm 
was  expressed.  It  had  been  expected  that  the  Sultans  of  the 
Dekhan  would  have  sent  in  their  submission  directly  they 
heard  that  Jehangir  was  approaching  the  frontier.  But  the 
Sultans  did  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  Nur  Mahal  proposed 
that  the  Padishah  should  return  to  Agra  under  pretence  of 
hunting.  But  Jehangir  declared  that  his  honor  was  at  stake. 
He  continued  to  advance,  but  sent  on  reinforcements  to  Shah 
Jehan,  who  had  gone  before  to  take  command  of  the  Moghul 
army  of  the  Dekhan.  Suddenly  the  news  arrived  of  a  great 
triumph  of  policy.  The  Sultans  of  Bijapur  and  Golkonda 
had  been  detached  from  the  cause  of  Malik  Amber;  the 
Abyssinian  had  been  defeated,  and  Ahmadnagar  was  re- 
stored to  the  Moghul. 

Sir  Thomas  Roe  left  India  in  1618.  Jehangir  went  to 
Guzerat;  subsequently  he  visited  Agra  and  Delhi.  In  his 
memoirs,  written  by  himself,  Jehangir  offers  certain  obser- 
vations on  the  country  and  people,  which  may  be  summed 
up  in  a  few  words,  and  serve  as  a  reflex  of  his  character. 

"Guzerat,"  says  Jehangir,  "is  infested  with  thieves  and 
vagabonds.  I  have  occasionally  executed  two  or  three  hun- 


182  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

dred  in  one  day,  but  I  could  not  suppress  the  brigandage. 
From  Guzerat  I  went  to  Agra,  where  I  became  reconciled 
to  my  eldest  son  Khuzru.  I  next  went  to  Delhi,  where  I 
heard  of  a  rebellion  in  Kanouj,  and  sent  a  force  to  put  it 
down.  Thirty  thousand  rebels  were  slain;  ten  thousand 
heads  were  sent  to  Delhi ;  ten  thousand  bodies  were  hung 
on  trees  with  their  heads  downward  along  the  several  high- 
ways. Notwithstanding  repeated  massacres  there  are  fre- 
quent rebellions  in  Hindustan.  Thore  is  not  a  province  in 
the  empire  in  which  half  a  million  of  people  have  not  been 
slaughtered  during  my  own  reign  and  that  of  my  father. 
Ever  and  anon  some  accursed  miscreant  springs  up  to  unfurl 
the  standard  of  rebellion.  In  Hindustan  there  has  never 
existed  a  period  of  complete  repose." 

Subsequently  Jehangir  proceeded  to  the  Punjab.  He 
made  Lahore  his  capital,  but  spent  the  hot  months  of  every 
year  among  the  cool  mountains  of  Kashmir.  Meanwhile 
Nur  Mahal  engaged  in  various  intrigues  respecting  the  suc- 
cession to  the  throne,  which  led  to  tragical  consequences. 

Jehangir  had  four  sons — Khuzru,  Parwiz,  Shah  Jehan, 
and  Shahryar.  Shah  Jehan,  the  victor  in  the  Dekhan,  stood 
the  fairest  chance  of  the  throne.  For  a  long  time  he  en- 
joyed the  favor  of  Nur  Mahal;  and  he  had  married  her 
niece,  a  daughter  of  her  brother  Asof  Khan.  Subsequently 
he  excited  her  wrath  by  another  marriage,  and  she  resolved 
to  work  his  destruction. 

Nur  Mahal  had  a  daughter  by  her  previous  husband,  and 
she  was  ambitious  for  this  daughter.  She  resolved  to  give 
her  in  marriage  to  Khuzru.  This  prince  was  already  recon- 
ciled to  his  father  Jehaiigir,  and  she  purposed  securing  his 
succession  to  the  throne.  But  Khuzru  was  not  a  Muham- 
madan,  and  was  averse  to  polygamy.  He  was  already  mar- 
ried to  one  wife,  and  he  refused  to  marry  a  second.  Nur 
Mahal  was  bitterly  angry  with  Khuzru,  and  betrothed  her 
daughter  to  his  youngest  brother  Shahryar.  Henceforth  she 
labored  hard  to  secure  the  succession  for  Shahryar. 

About  this   time   fresh   disturbances   broke  out  in   the 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  183 

Dekhan.  Shah  Jehan  was  again  ordered  to  take  the  com- 
mand of  the  army  of  the  Dekhan;  but  he  was  fearful  that 
Jehangir  might  die  in  his  absence,  and  that  Khuzru  might 
obtain  the  throne.  He  refused  to  go  to  the  Dekhan  unless 
Khuzru  was  placed  in  his  charge.  Nur  Mahal  raised  no 
objection ;  Khuzru  would  probably  be  murdered  by  his  un- 
scrupulous brother,  but  such  a  catastrophe  would  forward 
her  own  schemes  as  regards  Shahryar.  Jehangir  was  get- 
ting old  and  stupid,  and  was  induced  to  make  over  his  eldest 
son  to  the  charge  of  Shah  Jehan. 

Months  passed  away.  Shah  Jehan  was  again  at  Bur- 
hanpur  in  charge  of  his  brother  Khuzru.  Suddenly  news 
arrived  at  Burhanpur  that  Jehangir  was  dying.  One  night 
Khuzru  was  strangled  to  death  hi  his  chamber.  No  one 
doubted  that  the  murder  was  instigated  by  Shah  Jehan. 
Shortly  afterward  Jehangir  recovered  his  health.  He  was 
so  angry  at  the  murder  of  Khuzru,  that  he  sent  for  his 
grandson  Bulaki,  the  son  of  Khuzru,  and  raised  him  to  the 
rank  of  ten  thousand  horse,  the  highest  rank  in  the  empire. 
He  then  declared  Bulaki  to  be  his  successor  to  the  throne  of 
Hindustan. 

Shah  Jehan  was  driven  to  desperation  by  this  turn  of 
affairs.  The  murder  of  Khuzru,  which  was  to  have  placed 
him  on  the  throne,  had  elevated  his  nephew  Bulaki.  To 
crown  all,  he  was  deprived  of  the  bulk  of  his  army.  An 
army  was  despatched  from  Lahore  against  Persia  under 
the  command  of  Shahryar;  and  Shah  Jehan  was  ordered 
to  send  a  large  force  to  join  it;  while  his  officers  received 
direct  orders  from  the  Padishah  to  quit  the  Dekhan  and  join 
the  army  of  Shahryar. 

At  this  crisis  a  secret  plot  was  hatched  between  Shah 
Jehan  and  his  father-in-law,  Asof  Khan.  The  idea  was  to 
seize  the  imperial  treasures  at  Agra.  The  court  had  re- 
moved from  Agra  to  Lahore,  and  Asof  Khan  persuaded 
Jehangir  to  remove  the  treasure  in  like  manner.  Asof 
Khan  proceeded  to  Agra  to  conduct  the  removal;  and 
Shah  Jehan  was  to  march  hip  forces  with  the  utmost 


184  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

secrecy  from  the  Dekhan  and  surround  the  convoy.  The 
plan  had  nearly  succeeded.  The  treasurer  at  Agra,  much 
against  his  will,  had  loaded  the  camels  with  the  precious 
store,  when  he  heard  that  Shah  Jehan  was  coming  up  from 
the  Dekhan  by  forced  marches.  He  saw  through  the  plot  in 
a  moment.  He  unloaded  the  camels,  and  lodged  the  treas- 
ure once  again  in  the  fortress,  and  reported  the  coming  of 
Shah  Jehan  to  the  Padishah. 

Shah  Jehan  arrived  at  Agra,  but  the  treasure  was  be- 
yond his  reach.  During  three  weeks  he  made  repeated 
attacks  on  the  fortress,  but  failed  to  capture  it.  He 
wreaked  his  vengeance  on  the  city,  plundering  and  tort- 
uring the  citizens,  and  committing  cruel  outrages  on  their 
wives  and  daughters.  Meanwhile  Jehangir  was  marching 
from  Lahore  with  a  large  army.  Shah  Jehan  left  Agra  to 
encounter  his  father.  A  battle  was  fought  at  Delhi  between 
father  and  son;  and  Shah  Jehan  was  defeated,  and  com- 
pelled to  fly  to  the  mountains. 

The  further  movements  of  Shah  Jehan  are  startling  from 
their  audacity.  His  marches  resemble  the  flying  raids  of 
Ala-ud-din  and  Malik  Kafur.  He  resolved  to  plunder  Ben- 
gal ;  and  he  took  the  city  of  Dacca  by  surprise,  and  ravaged 
the  country,  until  the  robberies  and  outrages  of  his  followers 
were  a  terror  to  the  Bengalis.  At  last  he  was  again  attacked 
and  defeated  by  the  imperial  army.  He  now  fled  to  the 
Dekhan,  and  found  an  asylum  in  the  courts  of  Bijapur  and 
Golkonda,  like  an  exiled  prince  of  the  olden  time. 

All  this  while  there  were  antagonisms  between  the  Raj- 
put and  Muhammadan  armies  in  the  service  of  the  Moghul. 
Nur  Mahal  was  bitter  against  the  Rajputs,  especially  against 
a  Rajput  general  who  had  been  converted  t;>  Islam,  and  was 
known  by  the  name  of  Mahabat  Khan.  This  general  had 
commanded  a  Rajput  army  in  the  Dekhan,  but  was  recalled 
at  the  instance  of  Nur  Mahal.  Subsequently  through  her 
instrumentality  Mahabat  Khan  was  insulted  and  degraded; 
and  at  last  in  a  fit  of  desperation  he  carried  off  Jehangir  and 
kept  him  as  a  state  prisoner  under  his  immediate  charge. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  185 

For  a  brief  interval  Nur  Mahal  was  baffled ;  her  power 
was  gone,  for  Jehangir,  in  spite  of  his  detention,  was  still 
permitted  to  exercise  the  authority  of  Padishah.  Mahabat 
Khan  treated  his  sovereign  with  every  mark  of  respect;  and 
for  some  time  Jehangir  expressed  thankf ulness  for  his  deliv- 
erance from  the  toils  of  Nur  Mahal ;  but  after  a  while  he  fled 
back  to  his  beloved  Nur  Mahal.  Mahabat  Khan  and  his  Raj- 
puts were  now  in  extreme  peril.  Mahabat  Khan  would  have 
joined  Parwiz  with  his  Rajput  army,  but  Parwiz  was  dead. 
At  last  he  fled  to  the  Dekhan  and  espoused  the  cause  of  Shah 
Jehan. 

Jehangir  died  suddenly,  in  October,  1627.  Before  he  died 
he  again  nominated  his  grandson  Bulaki,  the  son  of  Khuzru, 
to  succeed  him  as  Padishah. 

Asof  Khan,  the  minister,  installed  Bulaki  on  the  throne 
at  Delhi.  His  object  was  to  checkmate  his  sister  Nur  Mahal, 
and  to  gain  time  for  furthering  the  designs  of  his  son-in-law, 
Shah  Jehan.  Shahryar  was  taken  prisoner  and  deprived  of 
sight.  The  only  remaining  claimants  to  the  throne  were 
Shah  Jehan,  the  third  son  of  Jehangir,  and  his  nephew 
Bulaki,  son  of  Khuzru. 

The  critical  state  of  affairs  was  brought  to  a  close  by  one 
of  those  strange  farces  which  are  peculiar  to  Oriental  history. 
It  was  given  out  that  Shah  Jehan  was  dangerously  ill,  and 
then  that  he  was  dead.  Permission  was  readily  obtained 
from  Bulaki  for  burying  the  remains  of  his  uncle  and  rival 
in  the  tomb  of  Akbar.  Mahabat  Khan  and  his  Rajputs  con- 
ducted an  empty  bier  in  sad  procession  to  Agra.  Bulaki  was 
persuaded  to  go  out  with  a  small  escort  to  conduct  his  uncle's 
remains  to  the  tomb  of  Akbar.  He  saw  a  vast  procession  of 
Rajputs,  and  then  suspected  a  plot  and  stole  away  to  Lahore. 
At  that  moment  the  trumpets  were  sounded,  and  Shah  Jehan 
was  proclaimed  Padishah,  and.  entered  the  fortress  of  Agra 
amid  universal  acclamations. 

What  followed  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  Moghul  history. 
There  certainly  was  a  massacre  of  princes  at  Lahore ;  and 
their  bodies  were  buried  in  a  garden,  while  their  heads  were 


186  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

sent  to  Shah  Jehan.  But  the  fate  of  Bulaki  is  uncertain. 
It  was  said  that  he  was  strangled ;  but  the  Duke  of  Hoi- 
stein's  ambassadors  saw  the  prince  in  Persia  ten  years  after- 
ward. "Whether  he  was  an  impostor  will  never  be  known. 
Shah  Jehan  sent  ambassadors  to  Persia  to  demand  the  sur- 
render of  the  pseudo-Padishah,  but  the  Shah  of  Persia  re- 
fused to  deliver  up  the  exile ;  and  henceforth  the  latter  per- 
sonage lived  on  a  pension  which  he  received  from  the  court 
of  Persia. 

The  reign  of  Shah  Jehan  is  obscure.  While  alive  his 
inordinate  love  of  flattery  led  to  fulsome  praises  of  his  ad- 
ministration, which  find  expression  in  history;  while  the 
misfortunes  of  his  later  years  excited  the  sympathy  of  Eu- 
ropean residents  in  India,  and  blinded  them  to  the  scandals 
which  stain  his  life  and  reign.1 

Shortly  after  the  accession  of  Shah  Jehan  he  manifested 
his  hatred  against  the  Portuguese.  Goa  was  beyond  his 
reach,  but  the  Portuguese  had  been  permitted  by  Akbar  to 
establish  a  settlement  at  Hughli,  in  Bengal,  about  twenty 
miles  from  the  present  site  of  Calcutta.  Shah  Jehan  had  a 
special  spite  against  the  Portuguese  of  Hughli.  They  had 
refused  to  help  him  in  the  rebellion  against  his  father  Je- 
hangir;  and  they  had  joined  the  imperial  army  with  men 
and  guns,  and  taken  a  part  in  the  battle  against  the 
rebel  son. 

The  fate  of  the  Portuguese  of  Hughli  is  one  of  the  sad- 
dest stories  in  the  history  of  India;  it  has  been  likened  to 
the  Babylonian  captivity  of  the  Jews.  The  settlement  was 
captured  hi  1632.  The  Portuguese  were  carried  away  cap- 
tive to  Agra  and  threatened  and  tortured  to  become  Muham- 
madans.  Many  held  out  and  suffered  martyrdom.  The 
flower  of  the  women  and  children  were  sent  to  the  impe- 
rial zenana;  the  remainder  were  distributed  among  the 
Amirs  of  the  Moghul  court ;  and  the  veil  of  oblivion  may 
well  be  thrown  over  the  unhappy  doom  of  all. 

1  For  details,  see  larger  History  of  India,  vol.  iv.  chap.  vi. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  187 

The  antagonisms  between  Rajputs  and  Muhammadans 
had  risen  to  a  dangerous  height  during  the  reign  of  Je- 
hangir,  but  during  the  reign  of  Shah  Jehan  they  became 
still  more  alarming.  The  race  hostility  between  Moghul 
and  Afghan  was  disappearing,  and  they  were  making  com- 
mon cause  against  the  Hindu.  A  Rajput  army  under  a 
Rajput  general  had  been  found  necessary  in  acting  against 
the  Muhammadan  Sultans  of  the  Dekhan.  When,  however, 
Mahabat  Khan  was  recalled  from  the  Dekhan,  an  Afghan 
army  was  sent  under  an  Afghan  general  named  Khan 
Jehan.  The  Afghans  were  Sunnis;  so  was  Malik  Amber 
the  Abyssinian.  Intrigues  naturally  followed  between  the 
Afghan  and  the  Abyssinian;  and  Khan  Jehan  discovered 
in  time  that  his  life  was  in  danger  from  Shah  Jehan,  and 
broke  out  into  rebellion.  Then  it  was  found  that  the  Mu- 
hammadan army  in  the  service  of  the  Padishah  would  not 
fight  against  the  rebel  Khan  Jehan  and  his  Afghans.  The 
Rajput  army  was  brought  into  play,  and  soon  defeated  and 
slew  the  rebel,  and  carried  off  his  head  to  Shah  Jehan. 

But  while  the  Rajputs  fought  bravely  against  the  Af- 
ghans, they  were  disaffected  toward  the  Padishah.  They 
had  helped  Shah  Jehan  to  obtain  the  throne,  out  of  hatred 
to  Nur  Mahal ;  but  they  had  no  respect  for  the  new  sover- 
eign ;  and  an  incident  occurred  at  this  time  which  reveals 
some  of  the  dangers  which  were  beginning  to  threaten  the 
imperial  throne. 

A  prince  of  Marwar  (Jodhpur)  named  Umra  Singh  had 
entered  the  Moghul' s  service  with  all  his  retainers.  It  was 
the  custom  for  the  Rajput  generals  to  mount  guard  in  turns 
before  the  palace,  while  the  Muhammadan  Amirs  mounted 
guard  inside  the  palace.  Umra  Singh  had  a  strong  aver- 
sion to  the  guard  duty.  On  one  occasion  he  was  away  for 
a  fortnight  without  leave,  and  when  he  returned  he  excused 
himself  by  saying  that  he  had  been  hunting.  He  was  fined, 
but  refused  to  pay  the  fine.  He  was  summoned  to  the  Dur- 
bar hall,  and  made  his  appearance  while  Shah  Jehan  was 
sitting  on  his  throne.  He  pressed  toward  the  front  as  if  to 


188  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

speak  to  the  Padishah,  and  then  suddenly  drew  a  dagger 
from  his  sleeve  and  stabbed  the  minister  to  the  heart.  Hav- 
ing thus  committed  himself  to  the  work  of  murder,  he  struck 
out  at  those  around  him;  in  a  word,  he  ran  "amok"  until  he 
was  overpowered  and  slain. 

The  turmoil  filled  the  Durbar  hall  with  consternation. 
Shah  Jehan  was  in  such  a  fright  that  he  left  the  throne  and 
ran  into  the  zenana.  The  retainers  of  Umra  Singh  heard 
that  their  master  was  dead,  and  ran  "amok"  in  the  old  Raj- 
put fashion.  They  put  on  saffron  clothes  and  rushed  to  the 
palace,  killing  all  they  met.  They  threatened  to  plunder 
Agra  unless  the  dead  body  of  their  prince  was  given  to  them. 
Shah  Jehan  was  forced  to  comply.  The  dead  body  was 
made  over  to  the  Rajputs;  the  funeral  pile  was  prepared, 
and  thirteen  women  perished  in  the  flames. 

The  Rajput  princes  outside  the  Moghul's  service  were 
still  more  refractory.  They  were  called  tributary  Rajas, 
but  rarely  paid  tribute  unless  they  were  forced.  They  were 
protected  by  forests  and  mountains.  They  often  desolated 
the  dominions  of  the  Moghul,  harassed  his  subjects,  hindered 
trade,  and  plundered  caravans.  Fortunately  they  were  at 
constant  feud  with  each  other;  whereas,  could  they  have 
united  in  one  national  uprising,  they  might  possibly  have 
contended  successfully  against  a  sovereign  like  Shah  Jehan. 

Shah  Jehan  carried  out  two  great  works  which  have 
served  to  perpetuate  his  name.  He  built  the  famous  Taj 
Mahal  at  Agra.  He  also  founded  the  present  city  of  Delhi, 
which  to  this  day  is  known  to  Muhammadans  by  the  name 
of  Shah  Jehanabad,  or  "the  city  of  Shah  Jehan." 

The  Taj  Mahal  is  a  mausoleum  of  white  marble ;  a  lofty 
dome  supported  by  four  arches.  Seen  from  the  outside,  the 
structure  is  of  plain  but  dazzling  whiteness.  Inside  the  walls 
are  inlaid  with  precious  stones  of  various  colors,  representing 
birds  and  flowers.  The  marble  gates  are  exquisitely  perfo- 
rated so  as  to  resemble  lace.  The  structure  is  built  in  the 
midst  of  gardens  and  terraces,  while  round  about  are  lofty 
pavilions  with  galleries  and  arched  ways.  The  whole  must 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  189 

have  cost  millions  sterling.  Twenty  thousand  men  are  said 
to  have  labored  at  it  for  twenty  years. 

This  mausoleum  was  built  in  honor  of  Shah  Jehan's  first 
and  favorite  wife  Mumtaz  Mahal,  the  daughter  of  Asof 
Khan,  and  niece  of  Nur  Mahal.  The  spirit  of  tho  place  is 
feminine.  There  is  nothing  stately  or  masculine  in  the 
buildings;  nothing  to  recall  the  architecture  of  Greece  or 
Rome.  It  is  lovely  beyond  description,  but  the  loveliness 
is  feminine.  It  is  not  the  tomb  of  a  wife,  but  the  shrine  of 
a  mistress.  It  awakens  ideas  of  fair-complexioned  beauty; 
the  soul  is  dead,  but  the  form,  the  charm,  the  grace  of  beauty 
are  lingering  there.  The  walls  are  like  muslin  dresses,  radi- 
ant with  flowers  and  jewels.  The  perforated  marble  gates 
are  like  the  lace  veils  of  a  bride. 

Shah  Jehan  never  lived  at  Delhi ;  he  made  Agra  his  capi- 
tal, but  sometimes  spent  the  hot  months  in  the  cool  climate 
of  Kashmir.  The  new  city  and  palace  of  Delhi  are  therefore 
chiefly  associated  with  the  reigns  of  his  successors.  But  he 
constructed  a  peacock  of  gold  and  jewels  over  the  imperial 
throne  at  Delhi  that  has  been  accounted  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world.  Some  have  attempted  to  estimate  its  value. 
But  the  historical  importance  of  the  peacock  lies  in  the  fact 
that  it  proves  Shah  Jehan  to  have  been  at  heart  a  Moghul 
and  an  idolater,  and  anything  but  a  Muhammadan.  The 
peacock  was  an  emblem  of  the  sun ;  and  Chenghiz  Khan 
and  the  Rana  of  Udaipur  claimed  alike  to  be  the  children 
of  the  sun.  The  image  of  a  peacock  was  opposed  to  the  di- 
rect injunctions  of  the  Koran ;  but  the  peacock  was  the  en- 
sign of  the  old  Maharajas  of  Vijayanagar,  and  to  this  day 
it  is  the  ensign  of  the  Moghul  kings  of  Burma. 

Shah  Jehan  carried  on  several  wars  on  the  frontier,  but 
they  are  of  small  importance.  On  the  northwest,  Kabul 
was  a  bone  of  contention  with  the  Uzbegs.  Further  south, 
Kandahar  was  a  bone  of  contention  with  Persia. 

The  history  of  the  reign  of  Shah  Jehan  is  little  better  than 
a  narrative  of  zenana  influences  and  intrigues.  Every  gov- 
ernor of  a  province  was  expected  to  send  not  only  a  fixed 


190  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

yearly  sum  as  the  Padishah's  share  of  the  revenue,  but 
costly  presents  to  Shah  Jehan  and  the  favorite  queens.  No 
governor  could  expect  to  keep  his  province  except  by  pres- 
ents, which  were  nothing  but  bribes;  and  such  bribes,  if 
liberally  bestowed,  would  often  cover  or  excuse  tyranny  and 
oppression,  and  secure  promotion  and  titles  of  honor  for  the 
lavish  donor. 

The  crowning  event  of  the  reign  was  the  fratricidal  war 
between  the  four  sons  of  Shah  Jehan  for  the  succession  to 
the  throne.  Each  of  these  four  sons  had  a  distinctive  char- 
acter ;  their  names  were  Dara,  Shuja,  Aurangzeb,  and  Murad. 
Dara,  the  eldest,  resided  with  the  court  at  Agra;  Shuja  was 
Viceroy  of  Bengal,  Aurangzeb  was  Viceroy  of  the  Moghul 
Dekhan,  and  Murad  was  Viceroy  of  Guzerat.  Dara  was 
attached  to  Europeans,  and  inclined  to  Christianity,  but  he 
treated  the  Rajput  princes  with  arrogance  and  scorn.  Shuja 
was  a  Shiah,  and  friendly  toward  the  Rajput  princes.  Au- 
rangzeb was  a  strict  Sunni,  and  Murad  professed  to  be  a 
Sunni  like  Aurangzeb. 

The  old  antagonism  between  Sunni  and  Shiah  was  about 
to  break  out  in  India.  The  original  quarrel  between  the  two 
hostile  camps  lies  in  a  nutshell.  The  Sunnis  say  that  the 
four  Khalifs,  who  reigned  in  succession  after  the  death  of 
Muhammad,  are  the  rightful  successors  of  the  prophet  by 
virtue  of  their  being  elected  by  the  congregation  at  Medina. 
The  Shiahs  declare  that  the  three  first  Khalifs — Abubakr, 
Omar,  and  Othman — are  usurpers;  that  Ali,  the  fourth 
Khalif,  is  the  only  rightful  successor  of  Muhammad  by 
virtue  of  his  kinship  with  the  prophet ;  Ali  being  the  hus- 
band of  Fatima,  the  prophet's  daughter,  and  the  father  of 
Hasan  and  Husain,  the  prophet's  grandsons.  To  this  day 
the  disputants  are  cursing  and  reviling  each  other,  and  often 
resort  to  fisticuffs,  cudgels,  and  swords,  in  the  vague  hope  of 
settling  the  controversy  by  force  of  arms. 

But  there  is  something  more  in  the  controversy  than 
meets  the  eye.  The  Sunni  is  a  puritan  of  a  democratic 
type,  who  hates  idolaters  and  unbelievers  of  every  kind, 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  191 

and  allows  but  little  speculation  in  matters  of  religion.  The 
Shiah,  on  the  other  hand,  believes  in  a  kind  of  apostolic  suc- 
cession, and  speculates  as  to  how  far  Muhammad  and  his 
son-in-law  Ah',  and  his  grandsons  Hasan  and  Husain,  are 
emanations  of  the  godhead;  and  he  is  certainly  neither  as 
puritanical  nor  as  intolerant  as  the  strict  Sunni. 

The  early  Padishahs  were  lusty  men,  sensual  and  jovial. 
Aurangzeb  was  a  lean  spare  fanatic,  abstaining  from  wine 
and  flesh  meat,  and  living  only  on  fruit  and  vegetables.  His 
face  was  pale  and  livid;  his  eyes  were  bright  and  piercing, 
but  sunk  in  his  head.  At  one  time  he  is  said  to  have  lived 
as  a  fakir  in  the  company  of  fakirs.  He  always  carried  a 
Koran  under  his  arm,  prayed  often  in  public,  and  expressed 
a  great  zeal  for  Muhammad  and  the  law. 

Aurangzeb,  as  already  said,  was  Viceroy  of  the  Moghul 
Dekhan.  He  had  resided  many  years  in  the  province,  and 
founded  the  city  of  Aurangabad,  which  was  called  after  his 
name.  He  hated  the  Shiah  Sultans  of  Bijapur  and  Gol- 
konda,  and  was  anxious  to  annex  their  kingdoms  to  the  em- 
pire of  the  Moghul.  He  formed  a  close  alliance  with  Amir 
Jumla,  a  rebel  minister  of  Golkonda,  and  projected  the  con- 
quest of  the  two  kingdoms ;  but  his  projects  were  thwarted 
by  Dara,  and  were  suddenly  brought  to  a  close  by  reports 
that  Shah  Jehan  was  dying,  followed  up  by  rumors  that  he 
was  dead. 

The  whole  empire  was  in  a  ferment.  It  was  known  on 
all  sides  that  the  four  brothers  would  engage  in  a  bloody 
contest  for  the  throne;  and  every  Amir  and  Raja  was 
weighing  the  character  and  prospects  of  each  of  the  four. 
Dara  was  the  eldest  son,  and  was  on  the  spot  to  assert  his 
rights ;  but  he  had  alienated  the  Rajputs  by  his  insolence ; 
he  was  disliked  by  the  Muhammadans  as  a  heretic ;  and  he 
was  especially  hated  by  the  Sunnis  as  an  infidel  and  unbe- 
liever. Shuja,  as  a  Shiah,  could  rely  on  the  support  of  the 
Rajputs,  and  on  the  help  of  all  those  nominal  Muhamma- 
dans who  were  followers  of  the  Koran  from  family  asso- 
ciations, but  detested  the  puritanism  and  fanaticism  of  the 


192  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

Sunnis.  Aurangzeb,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  strict  Sunni, 
and  relied  on  the  support  of  all  sincere  Muhammadans,  who 
mourned  over  the  decay  of  religion  and  morals,  and  yearned 
after  a  thorough  reformation.  His  main  difficulty  was  to 
reconcile  his  ambitious  schemes  with  his  religious  views. 
But  craft  and  fanaticism  removed  every  difficulty,  and  en- 
abled him  to  perpetrate  the  most  atrocious  crimes  out  of 
professed  zeal  for  the  prophet  and  his  law. 

Shuja,  Viceroy  of  Bengal,  was  the  first  to  take  the  field 
and  march  an  army  toward  Agra.  An  imperial  force  was 
sent  against  him,  consisting  of  a  Muhammadan  army  under 
Sulaiman,  the  eldest  son  of  Dara,  and  a  Rajput  army  under 
the  command  of  Jai  Singh,  Raja  of  Jaipur.1  Jai  Singh  had 
no  desire  to  act  against  Shuja.  He  hated  Dara,  who  had 
grievously  insulted  him  by  calling  him  a  musician.8  He 
assured  Shuja  that  Shah  Jehan  was  still  alive,  and  tried  to 
persuade  him  to  return  to  Bengal.  But  Shuja  was  self- 
willed,  and  a  battle  was  the  result;  but  though  Shuja  was 
defeated,  Jai  Singh  hung  back  from  a  pursuit.  Shuja  re- 
tired with  the  wreck  of  his  army  into  Bengal ;  and  'the  im- 
perial forces  saved  appearances  by  following  slowly  behind. 

Meanwhile  Aurangzeb  was  playing  an  artful  game.  He 
knew  that  his  younger  brother  Murad  had  begun  to  march 
an  army  from  Guzerat  toward  Agra.  He  wrote  to  Murad 
proposing  that  they  should  make  common  cause  against 
Dara.  All  that  he  wanted,  he  said,  was  to  prevent  an  in- 
fidel like  Dara,  or  a  heretic  like  Shuja,  from  succeeding  to 
the  throne  of  Hindustan.  He  was  satisfied  that  Murad  was 
an  orthodox  Sunni,  and  he  would  gladly  help  Murad  to  win 
the  throne ;  and  then  he  himself  would  retire  from  the  cares 
and  business  of  the  world,  and  devote  his  remaining  years  to 
penitence  and  prayer  at  the  prophet's  tomb. 

Murad  was  overjoyed  at  the  proposal.     The  two  armies 


1  Jai  Singh,  Raja  of  Jaipur  (Jeypore),  is  famous  in  the  after  history.     So  also 
is  Jaswant  Singh,  Raja  of  Marwa  (  Jodhpur). 

2  To  call  a  man  a  musician  is  a  grave  offence  in  Oriental  ears.     To  call  a 
woman  a  dancing-girl  is  an  equally  opprobrious  epithet. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  193 

were  soon  united,  and  marching  through  Rajputana  toward 
Agra.  Aurangzeb  continued  to  observe  a  studied  subservi- 
ence to  his  younger  brother.  He  treated  Murad  as  the  Pa- 
dishah, took  his  orders  as  regards  the  movements  of  the 
army,  and  even  prostrated  himself  before  him.  Murad 
was  completely  gulled.  He  was  anything  but  a  fervent 
Muhammadan,  and  certainly  had  none  of  the  fanaticism  of 
Aurangzeb.  He  professed  himself  a  Sunni  for  political  pur- 
poses ;  and  he  rejoiced  at  the  blind  zeal  which  had  driven 
Aurangzeb  to  help  him  to  the  throne. 

Dara  was  a  doomed  man  from  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
He  sent  an  imperial  force  against  the  two  brothers.  The 
Rajput  army  was  commanded  by  Jaswant  Singh  of  Marwar; 
and  this  Raja  was  stanch  to  the  imperial  cause,  for  he  had 
married  a  daughter  of  Shah  Jehan  by  a  Rajput  wife.  The 
Muhammadan  army  was  commanded  by  a  general  who  had 
been  insulted  by  Dara  and  was  burning  for  revenge.  A  bat- 
tle was  fought  near  Ujain  (Oojein),  but  the  Muhammadans 
would  not  fire  a  gun,  partly  through  the  treachery  of  their 
general,  and  possibly  out  of  respect  for  the  vaunted  piety  of 
Aurangzeb.  The  whole  brunt  of  the  battle  fell  upon  the 
Rajputs,  and  they  were  cut  to  pieces.  The  Raja  of  Marwar 
fled  with  a  handful  of  followers  to  the  city  of  Jodhpur,  only 
to  encounter  the  fury  of  his  Rani.  The  princess,  though  a 
daughter  of  Shah  Jehan,  had  Rajput  blood  in  her  veins. 
She  cried  out,  with  the  spirit  of  a  Spartan,  that  the  Raja 
ought  to  have  conquered  Aurangzeb  or  perished  on  the  field 
of  battle.  She  threatened  to  burn  herself  on  the  funeral 
pile,  since  her  husband  was  dead  to  shame;  and  she  only 
relented  on  his  making  a  solemn  vow  to  be  revenged  on 
Aurangzeb. 

Dara  was  frantic  at  the  defeat.  He  sent  expresses  calling 
up  Sulaiman  from  Bengal,  but  Jai  Singh  persuaded  Sulaiman 
to  remain  where  he  was.  He  raised  an  immense  army  of  raw 
levies;  and  refusing  to  wait  any  longer,  he  led  it  against  his 
two  brothers.  The  Rajputs  in  Dara's  army  were  stanch, 
but  the  commander  of  the  Muhammadans  was  burning  to  be 
X— 9  INDIA.  VOL.  I. 


194  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

revenged  on  Shah  Jehan ;  for  like  other  grandees,  his  wife 
had  been  dishonored  by  the  Padishah.  A  battle  was  fought 
on  the  banks  of  the  Chambal  river.  The  Rajput  leader  was 
slain,  and  his  men  fled  in  a  panic.  The  Muhammadan  troops 
were  persuaded  by  the  wrathful  husband  that  Dara  was  also 
slain,  and  they  fled  in  like  manner.  Dara  saw  that  all  was 
lost,  and  galloped  off  to  Agra  with  a  handful  of  followers; 
but  he  dared  not  remain  there,  and  made  his  way  to  the 
Punjab.  He  hoped  to  escape  to  Persia,  as  Humayun  had 
done  more  than  a  century  before. 

The  victorious  army  of  Aurangzeb  and  Murad  marched 
on  to  Agra,  and  shut  up  Shah  Jehan  in  his  own  palace. 
There  was  not  an  Amir  or  a  Raja  to  strike  a  blow  in  de- 
fence of  the  old  Padishah,  or  interfere  in  his  behalf.  All 
were  thunderstruck  at  the  revolution,  and  paralyzed  with 
fear.  Shah  Jehan  tried  to  inveigle  Aurangzeb  into  a  pri- 
vate interview ;  but  the  latter  was  warned  that  he  would  be 
murdered  by  the  Tartar  women  who  formed  the  bodyguard 
to  the  Padishah,  and  was  thus  able  to  avoid  the  snare. l 

Aurangzeb  next  feigned  to  prepare  for  the  coronation  of 
Murad.  Suddenly  it  was  noised  abroad  that  Murad  had 
been  found  by  his  brother  in  a  state  of  intoxication,  had  been 
declared  unfit  to  reign,  and  had  been  sent  as  a  state  prisoner 
for  life  to  the  fortress  of  Gwalior.  Meanwhile  Aurangzeb 
was  proclaimed  Padishah  amid  the  acclamations  of  his  sol- 
diers. The  whole  affair  is  a  Moghul  mystery.  It  is  said 
that  Murad  was  tempted  to  excess  by  Aurangzeb  himself, 
and  the  circumstances  confirm  the  suspicion.  Murad  was 
not  likely  to  have  indulged  in  wine,  much  less  to  have  fallen 
into  a  state  of  intoxication,  in  the  company  of  his  strict 
brother,  without  some  peculiar  temptation.  Again,  though 
a  zealous  Muhammadan  might  maintain  that  a  drunkard 
was  unfit  TO  reign,  yet  the  fact  that  Aurangzeb  made  his 


1  An  imperial  bodyguard  of  Tartar  women  is  an  ancient  institution  in  India. 
Megasthenes  tells  us  that  Sandrokottos  had  such  a  bodyguard ;  and  Raja  Dash- 
Janta  appears  with  the  same  kind  of  bodyguard  in  the  drama  of  Sakuntala. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  195 

brother's  drunkenness  a  plea  for  seizing  the  throne  will 
excite  suspicions  until  the  end  of  time. 

The  conclusion  of  the  fratricidal  war  may  be  briefly  told. 
The  fortunes  of  the  contending  brothers  really  depended 
upon  the  two  Rajput  Rajas,  Jai  Singh  and  Jaswant  Singh; 
and  both  were  won  over  for  the  time  by  the  cajoleries  of 
Aurangzeb,  who  forgot  his  religious  scruples  while  seeking 
the  support  of  Hindu  idolaters.  In  the  end  Shuja  was  de- 
feated by  Amir  Jumla,  the  stanch  ally  of  Aurangzeb;  and 
was  forced  to  fly  with  his  family  and  treasures  to  Arakan, 
where  he  is  supposed  to  have  perished  miserably.  Dara  was 
encouraged  by  Jaswant  Singh  to  hazard  another  battle,  but 
was  abandoned  by  the  Raja,  and  ruined  by  the  disaffection 
of  his  own  officers,  who  were  all  in  collusion  with  Aurangzeb. 
Again  he  fled  toward  Persia,  but  was  betrayed  by  an  Afghan, 
and  sent  in  fetters  to  Delhi;  and  there  he  was  murdered  by 
hired  assassins  in  the  pay  of  Aurangzeb.  His  son  Sulaiman 
escaped  to  Kashmir,  but  was  betrayed  by  the  Raja  of  Kash- 
mir, and  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days  as  a  state  prisoner 
in  the  fortress  of  Gwalior.  Shah  Jehan  was  imprisoned  for 
life  in  his  own  palace  at  Agra.  Aurangzeb,  who  had  made 
religion  a  stepping-stone  to  the  throne,  had  overcome  his 
brethren  mainly  by  the  support  of  two  heathen  Rajas.  He 
was  installed  as  Padishah  in  the  city  of  Delhi,  and  was  ac- 
cepted as  sovereign  by  the  people  of  Hindustan. 


196  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 


CHAPTER    VI 
MOGHUL  EMPIRE— AURANGZEB 

A.D.  1658  TO  1707 

AURANGZEB  had  gained  the  empire  of  Hindustan, 
but  he  was  oppressed  by  fears  and  worn  by  anxieties. 
He  may  have  felt  but  little  remorse  at  the  fate  of  his 
brethren;  but  he  was  in  constant  alarm  lest  his  father  Shah 
Jehan  should  escape  from  Agra,  or  his  brother  Shuja  should 
turn  up  in  Hindustan.  The  Sherif  of  Mecca  refused  to  re- 
ceive his  envoys,  although  they  brought  him  money  pres- 
ents; he  told  the  pilgrims  at  Mecca  that  he  knew  of  no 
sovereign  of  Hindustan  excepting  Shah  Jehan. 

Meanwhile  Aurangzeb  was  obliged  to  dissemble  his  re- 
ligious views ;  to  trim  between  Muhammadans  and  Hindus. 
He  tried  to  conciliate  strict  Muhammadans  by  enforcing  the 
law  against  wine,  by  prohibiting  music  and  singing,  and  by 
banishing  dancing-girls.  He  is  said  to  have  conciliated  the 
Rajas  by  magnificent  feasts,  at  which  he  offered  up  prayers 
in  the  presence  of  a  burning  brazier,1  as  if  he  were  perform- 
ing sacrifices.  But  he  could  not,  or  would  not,  conciliate 
Shiahs.  He  issued  an  edict  compelling  them  to  cut  the  long 
mustaches  which  they  wore  in  memory  of  the  prophet  Ali ; 
and  he  deprived  many  Persian  Shiahs  of  the  lands  which 
had  been  specially  granted  to  their  families  by  the  tolerant 
Akbar. 

Aurangzeb  was  not  an  amiable  man.     On  the  contrary, 

1  Hindus  say  their  prayers,  and  read  the  sacred  books,  in  the  presence  of  a 
lamp  or  fire  as  a  representative  of  deity.  Sir  William  Jones  was  much  censured 
in  bygone  days  because  he  yielded  to  the  prejudice  of  his  Brahman  pundits,  and 
burned  a  lamp  while  studying  the  laws  of  Manu. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  197 

he  was  sour,  reserved,  and  resentful,  and  seemed  to  delight 
in  wounding  the  feelings  of  others.  Although  he  was  more 
than  forty  years  of  age,  he  cherished  a  grudge  against  his 
old  tutor,  and  was  mean  enough  to  resent  it  by  stopping  his 
pension.  The  tutor  thought  there  must  be  some  mistake, 
and  went  to  Delhi  and  secured  a  public  audience  with  the 
Padishah  in  the  Durbar  hall.  He  expected  to  be  treated 
with  some  show  of  warmth;  but  to  his  utter  surprise  Au- 
rangzeb  delivered  a  long  tirade  on  the  poorness  of  his  edu- 
cation. "This  tutor,"  said  the  Padishah,  "taught  me  the 
Koran,  and  wearied  me  with  the  rules  of  Arabic  grammar; 
but  he  told  me  nothing  at  all  of  foreign  countries.  I  learned 
nothing  of  the  Ottoman  empire  in  Africa,  nor  of  the  Tartar 
empire  in  China.  I  was  made  to  believe  that  Holland  was 
a  great  empire,  and  that  England  was  larger  than  France. 
Meanwhile  I  was  taught  nothing  of  the  arts  of  government 
and  war,  and  but  very  little  of  the  towns  and  provinces  of 
Hindustan." 

The  set  speech  of  Aurangzeb  was  promulgated  through- 
out the  empire  and  lauded  to  the  skies  by  all  the  parasites 
and  courtiers;  but  wiser  men  saw  the  malignity  which  dic- 
tated it.  The  tutor  had  probably  taught  Aurangzeb  all  he 
knew,  and  certainly  could  not  have  been  expected  to  teach 
him  the  arts  of  government  and  war.  What  became  of  the 
tutor  is  unknown. 

For  some  years  Aurangzeb  made  Delhi  his  capital.  This 
city  stood  about  a  hundred  miles  to  the  north  of  Agra,  where 
Shah  Jehan  was  kept  prisoner.  It  presented  an  imposing 
appearance  in  those  days,  but  in  reality  was  little  better  than 
a  camp.  When  the  court  was  at  Delhi  the  city  was  crowded 
with  people;  but  when  the  court  removed  to  Kashmir  or 
elsewhere,  the  city  was  nearly  empty.  Only  a  few  houses 
in  all  Delhi  were  built  of  stone  or  brick ;  many  were  built  of 
clay  and  whitened  with  lime ;  but  the  greater  number  were 
mere  hovels  of  mud  and  straw;  and  when  the  court  and 
army  went  into  camp  these  huts  were  left  to  crumble  to 
pieces  beneath  the  sun  and  rain. 


198  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

The  city,  properly  so  called,  consisted  of  one  broad  street, 
lined  with  shops  and  arcades,  which  was  known  as  the 
Chandni  Chouk.  There  was  also  another  broad  street, 
without  shops,  where  the  grandees  dwelt  in  their  several 
mansions.  These  streets  were  intersected  by  long  narrow 
lanes,  peopled  with  the  miscellaneous  multitude  of  soldiers, 
servants,  followers,  artisans,  bazar  dealers,  coolies,  and  all 
the  strange  varieties  of  human  beings  that  make  up  an 
Indian  capital. 

The  city  of  Delhi  was  separated  from  the  palace  by  a 
great  square;  and  when  the  Padishah  was  at  Delhi  this 
square  was  a  vast  bazar,  the  centre  of  city  life,  its  gossip, 
and  its  news.  Here  the  Rajputs  mounted  guard  before  the 
entrance  gate  of  the  palace.  Here  horses  and  elephants  of 
the  Padishah  were  paraded  and  mustered.  Here  the  unfort- 
unate Dara  was  conducted  with  every  mark  of  contumely 
before  he  was  doomed  to  death,  in  order  that  the  people  of 
Delhi  might  know  that  he  was  captured,  and  might  not  be 
seduced  afterward  by  any  impostor  who  assumed  his  name. 
Here  wares  of  every  kind  were  exposed  for  sale;  mounte- 
banks and  jugglers  performed  before  idle  multitudes ;  and 
astrologers  calculated  fortunate  and  unfortunate  days  and 
hours. 

Astrologers  were  an  institution  at  Delhi,  as  indeed  they 
are  in  most  Oriental  cities.  Every  grandee  kept  an  astrolo- 
ger, and  treated  him  with  the  respect  due  to  an  eminent  doc- 
tor. But  there  was  always  a  number  of  poor  impostors  sit- 
ting in  the  bazar  ready  to  tell  the  fortune  of  any  man  or 
woman  for  a  penny.  They  sat  cross-legged  on  pieces  of  car- 
pet, and  handled  mathematical  instruments,  turned  over  the 
leaves  of  a  large  book  which  showed  the  signs  of  the  zodiac, 
and  then  feigned  to  calculate  a  fortunate  time  for  beginning 
any  business  or  journey.  Women,  especially,  covered  them- 
selves from  head  to  foot  in  white  calico,  and  flocked  to  the 
astrologers,  whispering  the  secrets  of  their  lives  with  the 
frankness  of  penitents  at  confession.  Bernier  describes  one 
ridiculous  pretender,  a  Portuguese  half-caste,  whose  only 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  199 

instrument  was  a  mariner's  compass,  and  whose  astrolog- 
ical lore  consisted  of  two  old  Catholic  prayer-books,  with 
pictures  of  the  Apostles,  which  he  passed  off  for  European 
zodiacal  signs. 

The  palace  at  Delhi  was  on  the  same  plan  as  all  the 
Moghul  palaces.  In  front,  within  the  entrance  gate,  were 
streets  of  shops  and  public  offices.  There  also  were  quar- 
ters for  the  Amirs,  who  mounted  guard  in  turns  within  the 
palace;1  the  arsenals  for  arms  and  accoutrements;  and  the 
workshops  for  all  the  artisans  employed  by  the  ladies  of  the 
zenana — embroiderers,  goldsmiths,  painters,  tailors,  shoe- 
makers, and  dressmakers. 

At  the  inner  end  of  the  palace  streets  was  the  Durbar 
court,  which  was  surrounded  by  arcades,  and  enclosed  the 
hall  of  audience,  and  other  pavilions.  Beyond  the  Durbar 
court  was  the  zenana  and  gardens.  At  the  extremity  of  the 
gardens  was  the  Jharokha  window,  looking  out  on  an  open 
plain  which  stretched  to  the  river  Jumna.  This  was  the 
plain  where  the  multitude  assembled  every  morning  to  salam 
the  Padishah ;  while  later  in  the  day  animal  fights  and  other 
performances  were  carried  on  beneath  the  window  for  the 
amusement  of  the  Padishah  and  his  ladies. 

Shortly  after  the  accession  of  Aurangzeb,  his  attention 
was  drawn  to  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  Dekhan.  The  north- 
ern Dekhan  was  Moghul  territory ;  further  south  were  the 
two  Muhammadan  kingdoms  of  Bijapur  and  Golkonda.  The 
western  region  near  the  sea,  known  as  the  mountains  of  the 
Konkan,  had  never  been  conquered  by  the  Muhammadans, 
and  was  still  held  by  the  Hindus  in  a  state  of  rude  independ- 
ence. The  consequence  was  that  the  territories  of  the  Moghul 
and  those  of  the  Sultan  of  Bijapur  were  alike  harassed  by  a 
lawless  chief  of  the  Konkan,  known  as  Sivaji  the  Mahratta. 
This  man  appeared  in  the  twofold  character  of  a  rebel  against 


1  Muhammadan  Amirs  mounted  guard  within  the  palace  gates ;  Rajput  Rajas 
mounted  guard  in  the  public  square  outside.  The  reason  for  this  was  that  the 
Rajput  Rajas  were  always  suspicious  of  treachery,  and  would  not  enter  gates  or 
walls  unless  accompanied  by  the  whole  of  their  retainers. 


200  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

the  Sultan  of  Bijapur,  and  a  freebooting  Esau  whose  hand 
was  against  every  man. 

The  mountains  of  the  Konkan,  the  cradle  of  Sivaji,  form 
the  northern  section  of  the  Western  Ghats.1  They  stretch 
southward  from  Surat,  past  Bombay  toward  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Goa.  The  political  geography  of  the  Konkan  thus 
bore  a  close  resemblance  to  that  of  Wales ;  and  the  chiefs 
or  Rajas  of  the  Konkan  maintained  a  rude  independence  in 
these  mountains,  like  that  which  was  maintained  by  the 
Welsh  princes  against  the  early  English  kings. 

The  father  of  Sivaji  was  a  vassal  of  the  Sultan  of  Bija- 
pur ;  as  such  he  held  the  two  fortresses  of  Joonere  and  Poona, 
about  seventy  miles  to  the  eastward  of  Bombay.  The  region 
encloses  fertile  valleys,  but  otherwise  might  be  described  as 
a  land  of  precipices  and  jungles.  For  an  unknown  period  it 
had  been  the  home  of  chieftains  who  were  sometimes  vassals 
of  the  Sultan  of  Bijapur  and  sometimes  rebels  against  his 
suzerainty. 

Sivaji  was  born  at  Joonere  in  1627,  and  bred  in  the  moun- 
tains between  Joonere  and  Poona.  While  yet  a  child,  his 
father  had  gone  away  south  into  the  Mysore  country ;  nomi- 
nally to  conquer  territory  for  the  Sultan,  but  practically  to 
carve  out  a  Raj  for  himself  among  the  dismembered  prov- 
inces of  the  Vijayanagar  empire.  Meanwhile  Sivaji  grew 
up  to  be  a  rebel  and  a  freebooter.  He  was  a  short  tawny 
mountaineer,  with  long  arms,  quick  eyes,  and  a  lithe  and 
active  frame.  He  was  a  rude  uncultivated  Hindu,  cunning 
and  crafty  beyond  his  fellows,  and  fertile  in  artful  devices 
and  disguises.  He  boasted  of  a  Rajput  origin ;  was  a  con- 
stant worshipper  of  Siva  and  Bhowani  ;s  and  was  especially 
imbued  with  a  superstitious  reverence  for  Brahmans.  But 
in  one  way  the  tinge  of  Rajput  blood  showed  itself.  Sivaji 
always  treated  women  with  respect,  and  never  insulted  the 
religion  of  his  Muhammadan  enemies. 

1  The  western  coast  of  India,  as  already  stated,  was  divided  into  three  sec- 
tions— Konkan,  Kanara,  and  Malabar. 

2  Bhowani  was  a  form  of  the  goddess  Durga,  also  known  as  Parvati  and  Kali, 
who  was  supposed  to  be  the  wife  of  Siva. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  201 

Sivaji  was  born  with  a  genius  for  sovereignty.  He  was 
endowed  with  that  mysterious  instinct  which  enables  some 
ignorant  barbarian  to  convert  shepherds  or  cultivators  into 
soldiers,  and  drill  them  into  submission  and  obedience.  He 
succeeded  in  forming  the  mountaineers  of  the  Konkan  into 
loose  but  organized  armies  of  horsemen;  levying  plunder 
and  blackmail  on  a  regular  system ;  devastating  the  plains 
during  the  dry  season,  but  returning  at  the  beginning  of  the 
rains  to  their  natural  fortresses  in  the  hills. 

Long  before  Aurangzeb  obtained  the  throne,  and  when 
he  was  simply  Viceroy  of  the  Moghul  Dekhan,  he  heard  of 
the  exploits  of  Sivaji.  Indeed  the  Mahratta  performed  a 
feat  at  this  period,  a  deed  of  treachery  and  audacity,  which 
rendered  him  notorious  far  and  wide.  The  Sultan  of  Bijapur 
sent  a  general  against  Sivaji  at  the  head  of  a  large  army. 
Sivaji  feigned  to  be  in  great  trepidation,  and  tendered  the 
most  humble  offers  of  service.  He  inveigled  the  Muham- 
mad an  general  into  a  private  meeting,  without  followers  on 
either  side,  at  which  he  was  to  do  homage  as  a  faithful  feu- 
datory of  Bijapur  and  take  the  commands  of  the  Sultan.1 
Sivaji  went  to  the  appointed  spot  with  a  secret  weapon  con- 
cealed in  his  hand ;  a  treacherous  and  murderous  contrivance 
which  reveals  the  savage  instincts  of  the  Mahratta.  It  con- 
sisted of  steel  blades  curled  at  the  points  to  resemble  claws; 
and  the  whole  was  fastened  to  the  fingers  with  rings,  and 
known  as  tiger's  claws. 

The  Muhammadan  general  approached  the  Hindu  with 
dignified  satisfaction.  Before  he  left  Bijapur  he  had  boasted 
that  he  would  bring  the  Mahratta  rebel  from  his  lair,  and 
cast  him  in  chains  at  the  foot  of  the  throne.  Sivaji  fell  at 
his  feet  like  an  abject  suppliant.  The  Muhammadan  told 
him  to  rise,  and  he  obeyed  with  every  show  of  humiliation 
and  submission.  At  this  moment,  when  the  Muhammadan 
was  off  his  guard,  the  Mahratta  rushed  at  him  like  a  tiger, 


1  According  to  some  stories,  both  Sivaji  and  the  Muhammadan  general  were 
each  accompanied  by  a  few  followers. 


202  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

tore  him  down  with  the  horrible  claws,  and  killed  him  on 
the  spot. 

It  is  difficult  to  describe  the  turmoil  which  followed.  The 
surrounding  jungle  seems  to  have  been  alive  with  Mahrattas. 
The  Bijapur  army  discovered  that  their  general  was  dead, 
and  fled  in  all  directions,  while  the  Mahrattas  plundered  the 
camp  and  slaughtered  the  flying  soldiery. 

This  exploit  seems  to  have  been  after  Aurangzeb's  own 
heart.  It  reached  his  ears  at  a  time  when  he  was  planning 
the  conquest  of  Bijapur,  and  brooding  over  the  approaching 
struggle  with  his  brothers  for  the  throne  of  Hindustan.  He 
saw  that  Sivaji  might  prove  a  useful  ally  in  the  coming  wars, 
and  that  in  the  event  of  defeat  or  disaster  the  mountains  of 
the  Konkan  might  offer  a  secure  asylum.  Accordingly, 
he  is  said  to  have  forgiven  all  the  aggressions  of  Sivaji 
on  Moghul  territory;  to  have  ceded  him  a  certain  border 
territory ;  and  to  have  come  to  some  sort  of  treaty  or  under- 
standing with  him.  But  the  Mahratta  alliance  come  to  noth- 
ing. The  fratricidal  wars  were  brought  to  a  close  without 
any  appeal  to  Sivaji.  Aurangzeb  ascended  the  throne  of 
Hindustan,  and  for  some  years  Sivaji  was  forgotten. 

Meanwhile  Sivaji  was  engaged  in  aggressions  on  Bijapur. 
The  government  of  Bijapur  was  weakened  by  domestic 
troubles,  and  anxious  to  make  peace  with  the  refractory 
Mahratta.  At  last  there  appears  to  have  been  some  kind 
of  understanding  or  compromise.  Sivaji  was  to  abstain 
from  all  further  depredations  on  Bijapur,  and  in  return  was 
to  be  left  in  possession  of  certain  territories  and  fortresses. 

But  it  was  impossible  for  a  restless  spirit  like  Sivaji  to 
settle  down  to  a  quiet  life.  Having  come  to  terms  with 
Bijapur  he  began  to  harass  the  territories  of  the  Moghul. 
He  worked  so  much  mischief  as  to  attract  the  attention  of 
Aurangzeb,  and  at  last  the  Padishah  took  effectual  measures 
for  stopping  all  further  depredations. 

Aurangzeb  appointed  his  uncle,  Shaista  Khan,  to  be  Vice- 
roy of  the  Moghul  Dekhan.  He  sent  his  uncle  with  a  large 
force  to  capture  the  fortresses  of  Sivaji  and  break  up  the 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  203 

power  of  the  Mahratta.  Shaista  Khan  was  accompanied  by 
a  Rajput  army  under  Jaswant  Singh,  of  Marwar.  Aurang- 
zeb  had  reason  to  be  very  suspicious  of  the  Raja  of  Marwar. 
Jaswant  Singh  had  married  a  daughter  of  Shah  Jehan,  and 
might  form  some  plan  for  the  liberation  of  his  captive  father- 
in-law.  At  any  rate,  it  was  considered  more  politic  to  em- 
ploy Jaswant  Singh  in  the  Dekhan  than  to  permit  him  to 
remain  in  Hindustan,  where  he  might  carry  on  secret  plots 
and  intrigues  for  the  restoration  of  Shah  Jehan  to  the  throne. 

In  1662  Shaista  Khan  captured  the  town  and  fortress  of 
Poona,  and  made  it  his  headquarters  during  the  rains.  One 
night  Sivaji  penetrated  the  Moghul  camp  and  suddenly  at- 
tacked the  quarters  of  the  Moghul  general.  Shaista  Khan 
escaped  with  the  loss  of  a  finger ;  his  eldest  son  was  slaugh- 
tered on  the  spot.  A  Mahratta  army  suddenly  fell  upon  the 
Moghul  camp,  and  all  was  uproar  and  confusion.  In  the 
end  Sivaji  stole  away  with  considerable  booty. 

Shaista  Khan  strongly  suspected  Jaswant  Singh  of  being 
concerned  in  this  disaster;  and  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  there  was  a  secret  alliance  between  the  Rajput 
and  the  Mahratta.  If  so,  it  was  the  first  sign  of  that  Hindu 
movement  against  Aurangzeb  which  forms  a  distinguished 
feature  of  the  reign. 

Sivaji  was  soon  revenged  on  the  Moghul  for  the  invasion 
of  Shaista  Khan.  The  Moghul  port  of  Surat  was  separated 
from  Sivaji's  territories  in  the  Konkan  by  a  tract  of  hill  and 
jungle  inhabited  by  Bhils,  and  other  wild  tribes,  under  the 
rule  of  some  obscure  Raja.  Sivaji  made  an  alliance  with 
this  Raja  and  marched  a  Mahratta  army  through  the  Bhil 
country.  The  town  of  Surat  was  taken  by  surprise.  Most 
of  the  inhabitants  fled  into  the  country  out  of  sheer  terror 
of  the  Mahrattas.  The  Moghul  governor  of  Surat  made  no 
resistance,  but  threw  himself  into  the  fortress,  and  sent  out 
messengers  for  succor. 

Meanwhile  the  Mahrattas  plundered  and  burned  the 
houses  of  Surat  at  their  leisure.  They  attacked  the  En- 
glish and  Dutch  factories,  but  both  were  fortified  with  can- 


204  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

non ;  and  the  European  merchants  in  both  houses  succeeded 
in  beating  off  the  brigands.  The  Mahrattas  arrested  all  the 
inhabitants  they  could  find  in  the  streets  or  houses,  and  car- 
ried them  off  as  prisoners  to  Sivaji,  who  remained  in  his  tent 
outside  the  town.  One  Englishman  named  Smith  was  also 
taken  prisoner.  He  saw  Sivaji  in  his  tent  ordering  heads 
and  hands  to  be  chopped  off,  whenever  he  suspected  that 
the  trembling  wretches  had  hidden  away  their  money  or 
jewels  in  some  secret  hoard. 

For  years  afterward  the  name  of  Sivaji  was  a  terror  to 
Surat.  He  often  threatened  to  repeat  the  pillage,  and  forced 
large  contributions  from  the  inhabitants  as  the  price  of  his 
forbearance.  He  called  Surat  his  treasury.  He  annexed 
the  intervening  Bhil  country  on  the  plea  that  he  could  not 
trust  the  Bhil  Raja  with  the  key  of  his  treasury. 

About  1665,  Shah  Jehan  died  in  the  palace  at  Agra,  not 
*t  without  suspicions  of  foul  play. '  Aurangzeb  had  been  suf- 
fering from  serious  sickness,  but  after  his  father's  death  he 
was  sufficiently  recovered  to  proceed  to  Kashmir,  where 
he  recruited  his  health  in  the  cool  air  of  the  mountains. 
At  Kashmir  he  attempted  to  form  a  fleet  which  should  rival 
the  navies  of  European  countries.  Two  ships  were  built  by 
the  help  of  an  Italian,  and  were  launched  on  the  lake  of 
Kashmir;  but  Aurangzeb  found  that  it  would  be  difficult 
to  man  them  efficiently.  No  amount  of  teaching  would  im- 
part the  necessary  quickness,  nerve,  and  energy  to  his  own 
subjects ;  and  if  he  engaged  the  services  of  Europeans,  they 
might  sail  away  with  his  ships,  and  he  might  never  see 
*  them  again. 

About  the  same  time,  Aurangzeb  was  threatened  by  the 
Shah  of  Persia.  Shah  Abbas  the  Second  was  a  warlike 
prince,  and  was  suspicious  of  Aurangzeb's  journey  to  Kash- 
mir. He  thought  it  portended  some  design  upon  Kandahar, 
which  at  this  time  was  Persian  territory.  Aurangzeb  sent 


1  The  question  of  whether  Aurangzeb  was  implicated  in  the  death  of  hia 
father  Shah  Jehan  is  treated  in  the  larger  History  of  India,  vol.  iv.  chap.  vii. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  205 

an  ambassador  to  the  Shah,  but  the  envoy  was  badly  re- 
ceived, and  publicly  insulted.  The  Shah  hated  Aurangzeb 
for  being  a  Sunni,  and  severely  condemned  him  for  his 
treatment  of  his  father  and  brethren.  He  scoffed  at  the 
title  which  Aurangzeb  had  assumed  of  "Conqueror  of  the 
World";  and  he  threatened  to  march  an  army  to  Delhi. 
Aurangzeb  was  in  the  utmost  alarm,  when  the  news  sud- 
denly arrived  that  Shah  Abbas  had  died  of  a  quinsy  brought 
on  by  excessive  drinking. 

Meantime  Aurangzeb  returned  to  Delhi.  In  1666  he  re- 
solved to  be  avenged  on  Sivaji  for  the  plunder  of  Surat,  and 
he  planned  a  scheme  for  entrapping  the  "mountain  rat." 
He  professed  to  be  an  admirer  of  Sivaji,  and  publicly  praised 
his  exploits.  He  declared  that  if  the  Mahratta  would  enter 
his  service,  he  should  be  appointed  Viceroy  of  the  Moghul 
Dekhan.  Jai  Singh  of  Jaipur  was  induced  to  believe  that 
Aurangzeb  was  sincere,  and  was  empowered  to  make  the 
offer  to  Sivaji ;  but  he  was  required  to  leave  his  son  at  Delhi 
as  a  hostage  for  his  good  faith  in  dealing  with  the  Mahratta. 

Vanity  is  a  weakness  with  Orientals.  The  pride  of  Sivaji 
was  flattered  with  the  offer  of  the  Great  Moghul.  In  the 
reign  of  Akbar,  Rajput  princes  had  been  appointed  Viceroys 
in  Kabul  and  Bengal ;  and  Sivaji  may  have  asked  himself — 
Why  should  not  a  Mahratta  prince  be  appointed  Viceroy  of 
the  Moghul  Dekhan?  It  never  crossed  the  mind  of  Sivaji 
that  possibly  he  had  been  deceived ;  and  he  undertook  the 
journey  to  Delhi  in  the  utmost  confidence  that  he  would  be 
appointed  Viceroy  of  the  Dekhan.  But  the  suspicions  of  Jai 
Singh  were  awakened;  he  began  to  fear  that  Aurangzeb 
meditated  some  treachery ;  and,  as  he  had  pledged  his  faith 
to  Sivaji,  he  wrote  to  his  son  at  Delhi  to  look  after  the  safety 
of  the  Mahratta. 

When  Sivaji  reached  Delhi,  he  soon  discovered  that  he 
had  been  deluded.  Instead  of  being  praised  and  petted,  he 
found  himself  neglected;  and  a  long  time  elapsed  before 
he  was  admitted  to  an  audience.  At  last  a  day  was  fixed, 
and  every  one  about  the  palace  saw  that  unusual  prepara- 


JJ06  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

tions  were  being  made  to  astonish  and  overawe  the  Mahratta. 
Aurangzeb  usually  appeared  in  Durbar  in  white  attire,  deco- 
rated with  a  single  jewel ;  and  on  such  occasions  he  took  his 
seat  upon  an  ordinary  throne. '  But  on  the  day  that  Sivaji 
was  to  be  introduced  to  his  notice,  the  Padishah  entered  the 
hall  in  a  blaze  of  jewels,  and  took  his  seat  on  the  peacock 
throne  of  Shah  Jehan. 

The  Amirs  and  Rajas  were  railed  off  as  usual  in  three 
compartments  on  three  platforms,  according  to  grades.  The 
highest  was  of  gold,  the  second  of  silver,  and  the  third  of 
marble."  Sivaji  was  admitted  within  the  golden  rail,  but 
directed  to  take  the  lowest  place  on  the  platform.  He  saw 
that  he  was  refused  the  rank  of  a  Viceroy  of  the  Dekhan, 
and  could  not  contain  his  wrath  and  indignation.  In  spite 
of  the  pomp  and  ceremonial  of  the  Durbar  hall,  and  the  bar- 
baric pearls  and  gold  of  the  Great  Moghul,  he  loudly  charged 
the  Padishah  with  breach  of  faith,  called  the  grandees  above 
him  cowards  and  women,  and  then  left  the  platform  and 
stalked  out  of  the  palace. 

Every  looker-on  was  expecting  that  Sivaji  would  be 
arrested  and  beheaded  on  the  spot;  but  Aurangzeb  listened 
to  his  tirade  with  perfect  tranquillity ;  and  nothing  was  to 
be  seen  upon  his  countenance  except  a  malignant  smile  that 
played  upon  his  lips  when  the  Mahratta  charged  the  gran- 
dees with  cowardice.  He  sent  one  of  his  ministers  to  tell 
the  wrathful  prince  that  new-comers  were  never  placed  in 
the  front  row;  that  he  had  not  as  yet  been  invested  with  the 
insignia  of  Viceroy  of  the  Dekhan ;  and  that  the  investiture 
would  follow  in  due  course,  after  which  he  would  take  the 
rank  of  his  appointment. 

Sivaji  feigned  to  be  satisfied,  but  his  eyes  were  opened 
to  a  new  peril :  he  found  himself  a  prisoner ;  a  guard  was 

1  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Aurangzeb  had  religious  scruples  as  to  sit- 
ting on  the  peacock  throne,  seeing  that  such  a  figure  savored  of  idolatry,  and 
was  a  violation  of  the  injunctions  of  the  Koran. 

8  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  platforms  were  of  gold,  silver,  and  marble,  or 
only  the  rails.  In  Jehangir's  time  the  distinction  turned  on  the  color  of  the 
rails,  the  highest  grade  in  the  empire  being  enclosed  by  a  red  rail 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  207 

placed  over  his  tent  under  pretence  of  protecting  him  against 
the  offended  grandees.  At  this  very  time  it  happened  that 
the  son  of  Jai  Singh  was  mounting  guard  before  the  palace, 
and  he  discovered  enough  to  warn  the  Mahratta  that  there 
was  a  plot  to  murder  him.  Sivaji  had  ample  grounds  for 
believing  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  remain  longer  at 
Delhi.  What  followed  is  involved  in  some  mystery.  Ac- 
cording to  the  current  story,  Sivaji  was  carried  outside  the 
city  walls  in  an  empty  fruit  basket,  and  then  made  his  way 
to  Benares,  disguised  as  a  religious  mendicant.  All  that  is 
known  for  certain  is,  that  after  many  months  he  reached  the 
Konkan  in  safety.  In  September,  1666,  the  English  mer- 
chants in  India  wrote  home  to  the  Directors  of  the  East 
India  Company,  that  if  Sivaji  had  really  escaped,  Aurangzeb 
would  soon  know  it  to  his  sorrow. 

It  has  always  been  a  matter  of  surprise  why  Aurangzeb 
did  not  put  Sivaji  to  death,  without  all  this  plotting  and 
scheming.  In  plain  truth  he  was  afraid  of  an  insurrection 
of  the  Rajas.  Other  Hindu  princes,  besides  Jai  Singh,  had 
become  sureties  for  the  performance  of  Aurangzeb' s  prom- 
ises. It  was  on  this  account  that  Aurangzeb  assumed  an 
unruffled  demeanor  in  the  Durbar  hall,  and  plotted  in  secret 
for  the  assassination  of  Sivaji  without  exciting  the  suspicions 
of  the  Rajas.  Fortunately  his  designs  were  discovered  by 
the  son  of  Jai  Singh,  and  Sivaji  escaped  the  trap  which  had 
been  prepared  at  Delhi. 

Aurangzeb  afterward  sent  an  imperial  force  of  Muham- 
madans  and  Rajputs  against  Sivaji.  The  Muhammadan 
army  was  under  the  command  of  his  eldest  son,  Shah  Alam. 
This  prince  was  destined  to  play  a  part  in  history.  His 
mother  was  a  Rajput  princess,  whom  Aurangzeb  had  mar- 
ried when  very  young.  The  Rajput  army  was  commanded 
by  Jai  Singh  of  Jaipur. 

Aurangzeb  gave  his  son  Shah  Alam  secret  instructions  to 
feign  a  rebellion.  The  object  was  to  discover  what  officers 
in  the  imperial  army  were  disaffected  toward  the  Padishah, 
and  to  induce  Sivaji  to  join  the  pretended  rebels,  when  he 


208  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

would  be  captured  and  beheaded.  Tbe  result  showed  that 
all  the  officers,  excepting  one,  were  disaffected  toward  Au- 
rangzeb,  and  ready  to  support  the  rebellion  of  Shah  Alam. 
Jai  Singh  and  the  Rajputs  were  especially  enthusiastic  in 
favor  of  Shah  Alam,  for  they  all  hated  Aurangzeb  as  a  big- 
oted Sunni,  and  were  anxious  to  place  the  son  of  a  Rajput 
mother  on  the  throne  of  Hindustan. 

Sivaji,  however,  was  not  to  be  ensnared  a  second  time. 
His  adventures  at  Delhi  had  taught  him  to  be  preternatu 
rally  suspicious  of  Aurangzeb.  He  professed  to  throw  him- 
self heart  and  soul  into  the  cause  of  Shah  Alam,  but  nothing 
would  induce  him  to  join  the  rebels.  He  told  Shah  Alam  to 
go  on  and  win  the  throne  of  Hindustan ;  he  himself  would 
remain  behind  and  maintain  the  prince's  cause  in  the  Dek- 
han ;  and  in  the  event  of  a  failure  he  would  keep  an  asylum 
open  in  the  Konkan  to  the  prince  and  his  followers. 

"When  Shah  Alam  saw  that  nothing  would  move  the 
Mahratta  from  his  purpose,  he  brought  the  sham  rebellion 
to  a  close.  Another  imperial  army  appeared  upon  the  scene 
to  protect  Shah  Alam  against  the  wrath  of  the  officers  whom 
he  had  deceived.  The  rebels  saw  that  they  had  been  deluded 
by  Shah  Alam ;  they  saw  moreover  that  they  had  been  sepa- 
rated from  each  other,  and  that  there  was  no  way  of  escape. 
All  the  disaffected  soldiers  were  drafted  off  to  different  prov- 
inces to  serve  under  other  generals.  All  the  rebel  generals 
were  put  to  death  or  sent  into  exile.  For  some  years  the 
Rajas  of  Jaipur  and  Marwar  disappear  from  history;  but 
the  Rana  of  Udaipur  still  maintained  his  independence  in 
his  secluded  territories  as  in  days  of  old. 

But  Aurangzeb  had  effected  another  object,  which  re- 
veals the  political  craft  of  the  Moghul.  From  the  reign  of 
Akbar  downward,  the  empire  had  been  exposed  to  rebellion 
on  the  part  of  the  eldest  son  of  the  Padishah.  But  the  cun- 
ning of  Aurangzeb  had  rendered  such  a  rebellion  impossible 
for  the  future.  Henceforth  Shah  Alam  found  it  impossi- 
ble to  revolt;  neither  Muhammadan  nor  Rajput  would  trust 
him  after  his  consummate  treachery.  Indeed,  such  was  the 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  209 

general  fear  and  universal  distrust,  that  the  chances  of  a 
successful  rebellion  were  less  during  the  remainder  of  the 
reign  of  Aurangzeb  than  at  any  former  period  in  the  history 
of  Moghul  India. 

In  1668  an  edict  was  issued  forbidding  any  one  to  write 
the  history  of  the  reign  of  Aurangzeb.  The  reason  for  this 
extraordinary  prohibition  has  never  been  explained.  Almost 
every  Moghul  sovereign  has  been  anxious  that  his  memoirs 
should  be  written  and  preserved  to  posterity;  and  Timur, 
Baber,  and  Jehangir  have  left  memoirs  of  their  lives,  osten- 
sibly written  by  themselves.  Possibly  Aurangzeb  was  afraid 
lest  current  suspicions  of  his  being  implicated  in  the  death  of 
his  father  would  be  recorded  in  the  popular  histories  of  his 
reign.  The  consequence  has  been  that  the  reign  of  Aurangzeb 
has  hitherto  been  little  known  to  history.  The  present  nar- 
rative is  based  on  the  contemporary  memoirs  of  Manouchi 
the  Venetian,  and  a  history  written  from  memory  many 
years  afterward  by  a  Muhammadan  named  Khafi  Khan.1 

For  some  years  the  attention  of  Aurangzeb  was  drawn 
away  from  the  Dekhan  by  the  troubled  state  of  the  north- 
west frontier.  The  outlying  province  of  Kabul  was  included 
hi  the  Moghul  empire,  but  was  only  nominally  under  Moghul 
rule.  The  Viceroy  lived  at  Peshawar,  and  rarely,  if  ever, 
attempted  to  go  further.  About  1666  a  Moghul  army  was 
collected  on  the  frontier  to  oppose  the  Persian  invasion ;  and 
when  all  danger  was  removed  by  the  death  of  Shah  Abbas, 
the  Viceroy  of  Kabul  led  the  army  through  the  Khaibar  Pass 
and  entered  the  Kabul  plain.  No  enemy  was  encountered, 
and  want  of  supplies  soon  compelled  the  Moghul  governor  to 
retire  toward  Peshawar  by  the  way  he  came.  On  re-enter- 
ing the  Khaibar  Pass,  the  whole  force  was  surrounded  by 
Afghans,  and  literally  cut  to  pieces.  The  Moghul  governor 
escaped  to  Peshawar  in  the  guise  of  an  Afghan,  but  with 
the  loss  of  all  his  troops  and  treasure. 


1  For  particulars  respecting  these  authorities,  see  the  larger  History  of  India, 
vol.  iv.  part  ii. 


210  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

In  1672  there  was  a  mysterious  outbreak  in  Kabul. 
Shuja,  the  second  brother  of  Aurangzeb,  was  supposed  to 
have  perished  in  Arakan  some  twelve  years  before.  This 
year,  however,  a  man  appeared  in  Kabul,  and  declared 
himself  to  be  the  missing  Shuja;  and  the  Afghans  accepted 
him  as  their  Padishah.  To  this  day  it  is  impossible  to  say 
whether  the  man  was,  or  was  not,  Shuja.  It  is  certain, 
however,  that  the  Viceroy  at  Peshawar  believed  him  to  be 
the  real  Shuja,  and  refused  to  interfere  between  Aurangzeb 
and  his  brother. 

The  revolt  in  Kabul  created  the  utmost  alarm  at  Delhi. 
Aurangzeb  took  the  field  in  person,  and  for  the  space  of  two 
years  carried  on  operations  against  the  Afghans,  but  effected 
nothing  decisive.  The  Moghul  army  was  still  harassed  by 
the  Afghans,  and  Shuja  was  still  secure  in  the  recesses  of 
the  mountains. 

At  last  treachery  was  tried.  Aurangzeb  returned  to 
Delhi,  and  a  new  Viceroy  was  sent  to  Peshawar.  A  policy 
of  conciliation  was  adopted.  The  new  Viceroy  began  to  in- 
gratiate himself  with  the  Afghan  chiefs,  treated  them  as  his 
friends,  abolished  imposts,  and  attended  Afghan  feasts  with- 
out armed  followers.  At  last  he  gave  a  grand  entertainment 
at  Peshawar  to  celebrate  the  circumcision  of  his  eldest  son. 
All  the  Afghan  chiefs  were  invited,  and  a  large  number  at- 
tended without  fear  or  suspicion.  There  were  horse-races, 
animal  combats,  wrestlings,  and  exhibitions  of  all  kinds. 
The  whole  wound  up  with  a  banquet  in  a  tented  pavilion 
set  up  in  the  public  square.  In  the  midst  of  the  banquet 
the  Viceroy  left  the  pavilion  under  pretence  of  having  cut 
his  hand.  Immediately  afterward  volleys  of  musketry  were 
poured  into  the  pavilion  from  the  surrounding  houses.  The 
air  was  filled  with  cries  of  treachery  and  murder.  There 
was  no  way  of  escape  for  the  frightened  guests,  for  all  the 
avenues  were  guarded  with  armed  men.  How  many  were 
slaughtered,  how  many  escaped,  can  never  be  told.  The 
massacre  spread  weeping  and  wailing  throughout  Kabul. 
The  Afghan  nation  was  paralyzed  with  terror  and  sorrow. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA 

The  man  calling  himself  Shuja  fled  away  from  the  scene 
and  was  heard  of  no  more. 

Meanwhile  Sivaji  the  Mahratta  was  renewing  his  depreda- 
tions in  the  Dekhan.  All  treaties  or  agreements  were  violated 
or  ignored.  He  ravaged  alike  the  territories  of  the  Sultan 
of  Bijapur  and  those  of  the  Moghul.  He  organized  a  regular 
system  of  blackmail,  known  for  more  than  a  century  after- 
ward as  the  Mahratta  chout.  It  amounted  to  a  fourth  part 
of  the  revenue  of  the  land.  So  long  as  the  chout  was  paid, 
the  Mahrattas  abstained  from  all  robberies  and  devastations ; 
but  if  the  chout  was  withheld,  the  Mahrattas  pillaged  the 
country  as  before. 

The  career  of  Sivaji  at  this  period  reveals  the  continued 
decay  of  the  Muhammadan  powers  in  India.  The  Sultan  of 
Bijapur  was  compelled  to  recognize  Sivaji  as  the  independent 
sovereign  of  the  Konkan ;  and  in  1674  Sivaji  was  installed 
as  Maharaja  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony,  which  have 
been  duly  described  by  English  ambassadors  from  Bombay 
who  were  present  on  the  occasion. 

In  1677  Sivaji  conducted  an  army  of  Mahratta  horse  in  a 
southeasterly  direction  through  the  kingdom  of  Golkonda, 
and  invaded  the  eastern  Peninsula.  On  this  occasion  he 
passed  the  neighborhood  of  Madras,  and  was  duly  propitiated 
with  cordials  and  medicines  by  the  English  merchants  of  Fort 
St.  George.  Ultimately  he  conquered  a  kingdom  of  an  un- 
known extent  in  the  country  known  as  the  Lower  Carnatic, 
in  the  eastern  Peninsula.  This  Mahratta  empire  in  the  Car- 
natic was  represented  down  to  modern  times  by  the  Raj  of 
Tan  j  ore.1 

Sivaji  died  about  1680,  having  maintained  his  independence 

1  The  old  empire  of  Karnata  corresponded  more  or  less  to  the  Mysore  coun- 
try, the  territory  occupied  by  the  Kanarese-speaking  people.  The  area  of  the 
empire  has  often  changed,  while  that  of  the  language  has  remained  the  same. 
In  the  seventeenth  century  the  empire  had  dwindled  into  a  petty  Raj,  and  then 
disappeared  from  history.  The  name,  however,  has  been  preserved  to  our  own 
times.  The  whole  of  the  Peninsula,  or  India  south  of  the  Kistna,  has  been 
divided  between  what  is  known  in  modern  orthography  as  the  Upper  and  Lower 
Carnatics ;  the  Upper  Carnatic  comprising  the  western  tableland,  while  the  Lower 
Carnatic  comprises  the  eastern  plain. 


212  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

till  his  death.  During  the  last  two  or  three  years  of  his  life, 
the  Moghul  army  of  the  Dekhan  operated  against  him  under 
the  command  of  Shah  Alam,  but  nothing  was  done  worthy 
of  note.  Sivaji  occasionally  made  extensive  raids  with  his 
Mahratta  horse,  and  carried  off  convoys  of  treasures  and 
supplies,  and  escaped  back  safely  to  his  hill  fortresses.  The 
Moghul  generals  did  not  care  to  climb  the  "Western  Ghats, 
nor  to  penetrate  the  dangerous  defiles;  nor  indeed  did  they 
want  to  bring  the  wars  of  the  Dekhan  to  a  close.  So  long 
as  the  wars  lasted  the  Moghul  commanders  made  large 
emoluments  by  keeping  small  forces  in  the  field  while  draw- 
ing the  pay  for  large  numbers.  At  the  same  time  they  found 
no  difficulty  in  squeezing  presents  and  supplies  out  of  the 
Sultans  of  Bijapur  and  Golkonda,  who  were  especially  anx- 
ious to  save  their  kingdoms  from  invasion  by  propitiating 
the  officers  of  the  Great  Moghul. 

About  this  period,  and  probably  ever  since  the  massacre 
of  the  Afghans  at  Peshawar,  Aurangzeb  had  been  bent  upon 
realizing  the  great  dream  of  his  life — the  destruction  of  idol- 
atry throughout  India,  and  the  establishment  of  the  religion 
of  the  Koran  from  the  Indus  to  the  Ganges,  and  from  the 
Indian  Ocean  to  the  Bay  of  Bengal. 

The  policy  of  Aurangzeb  was  directly  opposed  to  that  of 
Akbar.  Instead  of  raising  the  Rajput  princes  to  rank  and 
influence,  he  sought  to  degrade  them.  Instead  of  permitting 
the  followers  of  other  religions  to  worship  God  their  own 
way,  he  sought  to  force  them  into  becoming  Muhamma- 
dans. 

In  the  first  instance  Aurangzeb  confined  his  operations 
to  his  own  dominions.  He  began  by  destroying  idols  and 
pagodas  within  his  own  territories,  and  building  up  mosques 
in  their  room.  He  burned  down  a  great  pagoda  near  Delhi. 
He  converted  a  magnificent  temple  at  Mathura  into  a 
mosque.  He  drove  religious  mendicants  of  every  idola- 
trous sect  out  of  Hindustan.  He  ordered  the  Viceroys  of 
provinces  to  carry  on  the  same  work  throughout  the  empire, 
in  Bengal  and  the  Dekhan  as  well  as  in  Hindustan.  At  the 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA 

same  time  he  prohibited  the  celebration  of  Hindu  festivals. 
He  required  all  Hindu  servants  of  the  Moghul  government 
to  become  Muhammadans  under  pain  of  losing  their  appoint- 
ments. He  imposed  the  Jezya,  or  poll-tax  on  infidels,  on  all 
of  his  subjects  who  refused  to  become  Muhammadans.  Even 
English  and  Dutch  residents  in  India  were  subjected  to  the 
same  obnoxious  impost ;  but  they  seem  to  have  escaped  pay- 
ment by  tendering  presents  to  the  Viceroy  of  the  province  in 
which  they  had  established  their  respective  factories. 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  the  nature  and  extent  of  the 
resistance  which  the  Hindus  offered  to  these  innovations. 
It  is  certain  that  bands  of  fanatics  more  than  once  rose  in 
rebellion.  On  one  occasion  there  was  a  dangerous  rising 
near  Delhi,  which  threatened  the  destruction  of  Aurangzeb 
as  the  enemy  of  gods  and  Brahmans.  But  Hindu  fanatics, 
however  numerous,  could  not  withstand  the  Moghuls.  Mobs 
of  Hindus  crowded  the  streets  of  Delhi  between  the  palace 
and  the  mosque,  and  clamored  to  Aurangzeb  to  abolish  the 
Jezya;  but  they  were  trampled  down  and  scattered  by  the 
elephants  of  the  Padishah,  and  fled  in  terror  and  dismay. 
At  last  the  Hindus  seem  to  have  submitted  to  their  fate  in 
sullen  resignation.  If  the  gods  themselves  could  not  prevent 
the  destruction  of  idols  and  pagodas,  why  should  their  wor- 
shippers sacrifice  their  wives  and  families  by  refusing  to  pay 
Jezya? 

Aurangzeb  next  attempted  to  introduce  the  same  perse- 
cuting measures  into  Rajputana ;  and  for  a  while  he  seemed 
to  carry  his  point.  Jai  Singh  of  Jaipur  was  dead ;  he  is  said 
to  have  been  poisoned  after  the  sham  rebellion  of  Shah 
Alam.  There  was  no  one  to  succeed  him,  for  his  eldest  son 
was  still  kept  as  a  hostage  at  Delhi.  Accordingly  Jaipur 
was  compelled  to  submit,  and  the  officers  of  the  Moghul 
collected  Jezya  in  Jaipur  territory. 

Marwar  (Jodhpore)  was  at  first  prepared  for  resistance. 
Jaswant  Singh  was  dead,  but  his  widow,  a  daughter  of  Shah 
Jehan,  refused  to  permit  the  collection  of  Jezya.  The  Mo- 
ghuls threatened  to  invade  Marwar,  and  the  heart  of  the 


214  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

princess  failed  her;  and  she  compounded  with  Aurangzeb 
by  ceding  a  frontier  district  in  lieu  of  Jezya. 

The  Rana  of  Udaipur  had  been  left  alone  for  a  number 
of  years,  and  seems  to  have  recovered  strength.  The  de- 
mands of  Aurangzeb  fell  upon  him  like  a  thunderbolt;  indeed 
they  were  so  arrogant  that  it  was  impossible  he  could  com- 
ply. He  was  to  allow  cows  to  be  slaughtered  in  his  terri- 
tories ;  pagodas  to  be  demolished ;  justice  to  be  administered 
according  to  the  Koran;  and  the  collection  of  Jezya  from 
all  his  subjects  who  refused  to  become  Muhammadans.  Pos- 
sibly the  first  three  demands  were  only  made  in  order  to 
bully  the  Rana  into  permitting  the  collection  of  Jezya;  as 
it  was,  all  four  were  refused. 

The  military  operations  which  followed  are  very  sugges- 
tive. It  was  the  old  story  of  Moghuls  against  Greeks;  the 
hordes  of  High  Asia  against  the  Hellas  of  India.  The  Rana 
and  his  subjects  abandoned  the  plains  and  took  refuge  in  the 
Aravulli  mountains.  Three  armies  of  the  Moghul  encamped 
at  three  different  points  under  the  command  of  three  sons  of 
Aurangzeb — Shah  Alam,  Azam  Shah,  and  Akbar.  Not  one, 
however,  would  venture  to  enter  the  dangerous  defiles. 
Aurangzeb  stayed  at  Ajmir  with  a  small  force  awaiting 
the  surrender  of  the  Rana.  In  this  manner  the  Moghul 
armies  wasted  their  strength,  energies,  and  resources  be- 
fore these  natural  fastnesses ;  and  months  and  years  passed 
away,  while  the  submission  of  the  Rana  was  as  far  off 
as  ever. 

At  this  juncture  Aurangzeb  was  aroused  by  the  tidings 
that  his  third  son  Akbar  had  broken  out  in  rebellion,  and 
was  already  on  the  march  to  Ajmir.  The  dowager  Rani  of 
Marwar  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  mischief ;  she  had  repented 
of  her  compromise  with  the  Moghul,  and  sent  fifty  thousand 
Rajputs  to  enable  Akbar  to  rebel  against  his  father.  At  first 
Aurangzeb  could  not  believe  the  story ;  but  the  same  news 
reached  him  from  other  quarters,  and  he  was  at  his  wits' 
end.  At  last  he  sent  a  forged  letter  addressed  to  Akbar; 
but  the  messenger  was  to  allow  himself  to  be  taken  prisoner, 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  215 

and  the  letter  was  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  general  of  the 
Rajputs  in  the  rebel  army. 

The  artifice  was  successful.  The  forged  letter  was  cap- 
tured and  read  by  the  Rajput  general.  It  told  him  that 
Aurangzeb  and  Akbar  were  in  collusion,  and  that  their  only 
object  was  to  destroy  the  fifty  thousand  Rajputs.  The  Raj- 
put general  remembered  the  sham  rebellion  of  Shah  Alam, 
and  naturally  thought  that  Akbar  was  playing  the  same 
game.  At  night  he  deserted  Akbar  with  the  whole  of  the 
Rajput  army,  and  hurried  back  with  all  haste  to  the  city  of 
Jodhpore.  In  the  morning  Akbar  saw  that  all  was  lost,  and 
fled  for  his  life.  After  a  variety  of  adventures  he  found  a 
refuge  in  the  Mahratta  country.1 

Aurangzeb  was  thus  compelled  to  Abandon  his  religious 
wars  in  Rajputana,  and  to  pursue  Akbar  into  the  Mahratta 
country,  until,  by  force  or  craft,  he  could  secure  the  person 
of  his  rebel  son  and  place  him  in  safe  custody.  The  humilia- 
tion of  Aurangzeb  must  have  been  extreme,  but  there  was 
no  remedy.  The  shame  of  the  retreat  from  Rajputana  was 
partly  veiled  by  a  report  that  the  Rana  had  sued  for  terms; 
but  there  was  no  disguising  the  fact  that  the  Rana  had  suc- 
cessfully held  out  against  the  Moghul ;  and  that  Aurangzeb 
was  compelled  to  leave  the  Rajputs  to  worship  their  gods  in 
peace,  and  to  engage  in  other  wars  against  the  Mahrattas 
of  the  Konkan. 

Aurangzeb  concealed  his  disgrace  from  the  public  eye  by 
a  show  of  pomp  and  magnificence,  which  was  remembered 
for  generations  afterward.  The  progress  of  the  Moghul 
army  from  Hindustan  to  the  Dekhan  resembled  that  of  the 
Persian  army  under  Xerxes.  The  cavalcade  moved  in  three 
divisions,  and  the  order  of  march  may  be  gathered  from  the 
following  outline. 

A  body  of  pioneers  walked  in  front  with  spades  and  hods 
to  clear  the  way.  Then  followed  a  vanguard  of  cannon, 


1  The  details  of  the  Rajput  war  and  Akbar's  rebellion  and  flight  are  told  at 
length  in  the  larger  History  of  India,  vol.  iv.  part  ii. 


216  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

elephants  loaded  with  treasures,  carts  laden  with  records 
and  account  books,  camels  carrying  drinking  water  from  the 
Ganges,  provisions  in  abundance,  cooks  by  hundreds,  ward- 
robes of  dresses  and  decorations,  and  large  masses  of  horse- 
men. 

The  approach  of  the  Padishah  was  heralded  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  smoking  caldrons  of  incense,  which  were  car- 
ried on  the  backs  of  camels.  Aurangzeb  was  next  seen  on 
an  elephant,  or  on  horseback,  or  in  a  rich  palanquin.  On 
either  side  were  the  imperial  guards  on  horseback.  After 
him  came  the  ladies  of  the  zenana  on  elephants  with  veiled 
howdahs.  They  were  followed  by  flocks  of  other  women 
and  eunuchs  on  horseback,  and  numerous  cannon  drawn  on 
wooden  rafts. 

The  division  in  the  rear  comprised  a  motley  host  of  in- 
fantry, camp-followers,  sutlers,  and  servants,  with  spare 
horses,  tents  and  baggage. 

Aurangzeb  continued  in  camp  for  the  remainder  of  his 
reign.  From  the  day  of  his  retreat  from  Rajputana,  about 
1682,  until  the  day  of  his  death  in  1707,  a  period  of  twenty- 
five  years,  he  never  returned  to  Delhi.  He  was  warned  by 
the  fate  of  Shah  Jehan  never  to  leave  his  army  and  live  in  a 
city.  He  was  warned  by  the  rebellion  of  his  son  Akbar 
never  to  trust  any  of  his  sons  with  a  force  superior  to  his 
own.  Henceforth  he  spent  his  days  in  camp,  wandering 
to  and  fro  like  his  Tartar  ancestors  in  the  steppes  of  Asia. 

The  details  of  the  protracted  wars  of  Aurangzeb  would 
be  distasteful  to  general  readers.  They  furnish  studies  of 
character,  but  tell  little  of  history,  and  still  less  of  policy. 
Aurangzeb  had  a  genius  for  treachery  and  intrigue;  at  the 
same  time  he  had  been  zealous  to  root  out  all  idolatry  and 
establish  the  Koran  as  the  religion  of  India.  It  is  hard  to 
reconcile  such  contradictions.  Meanwhile  none  who  knew 
him  would  trust  his  word.  He  tried  to  cajole  Akbar  by 
vows  and  promises;  but  the  son  refused  to  believe  his  fath- 
er's oaths.  The  prince  knew  that  if  he  surrendered  himself 
to  Aurangzeb  he  would  be  a  prisoner  for  life,  and  perhaps 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA 

might  be  blinded  or  poisoned.1  In  the  end  he  escaped  to 
Persia,  where  he  died  and  was  forgotten. 

Aurangzeb  made  no  head  against  the  Mahrattas.  He 
was  baffled  by  an  enemy  whose  light  horse  scoured  the  open 
country  for  plunder,  and  then  escaped  to  defiles  and  fast- 
nesses where  no  one  dared  to  follow  them.  Sivaji  had  been 
succeeded  on  the  throne  of  the  Konkan  by  a  son  named 
Sambhaji.  After  some  years  Sambhaji  was  betrayed  to 
Aurangzeb,  and  put  to  a  barbarous  death.  But  peace  was 
as  far  off  as  ever.  The  Moghuls  could  not  conquer  the 
Mahrattas,  and  would  not  comply  with  their  demands  for 
chout;  and  thus  the  Moghul  army  continued  to  carry  on 
desultory  wars  throughout  the  remainder  of  the  reign. 

Between  1686  and  1689  Aurangzeb  conquered  the  Sultans 
of  Bijapur  and  Golkonda,  and  thereby  converted  their  king- 
doms into  a  Muhammadan  province.  The  early  Viceroys 
were  called  Nawabs  and  Subahdars,  but  later  on  were  known 
as  the  Nizarns  of  the  Dekhan,  having  their  capital  at  Hyder- 
abad. The  conquest  is  memorable,  because  it  brought  the 
Moghuls  into  the  Peninsula,  and  into  close  relations  with 
the  English  at  Madras.  Otherwise  the  acquisition  effected 
no  change  in  the  Moghul  empire.11 

Aurangzeb  was  a  very  old  man  when  he  died  in  1707, 
but  there  is  some  doubt  as  to  his  actual  age.  His  life  closed 
in  weakness  and  disaster.  His  intolerance  in  matters  of 
religion  had  brought  the  Moghul  empire  to  the  verge  of  ruin. 
Had  he  followed  the  policy  of  his  ancestor  Akbar,  he  might 
have  extended  his  sovereignty  over  all  the  Hindu  kingdoms 
of  the  Peninsula.  But  he  had  evoked  a  national  spirit  of 
resistance  which  he  could  not  subdue ;  and  when  his  years 
were  ended,  the  Moghul  suzerainty  had  lost  its  hold  on 
Rajput  and  Mahratta. 


1  -This  had  been  the  unhappy  fate  of  an  elder  brother,  who  had  been  induced 
to  go  over  to  Shah  Shuja  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign,  and  then  had  surrendered 
to  Aurangzeb.  He  perished  miserably  in  the  fortress  of  Gwalior. 

4  Notices  of  the  local  history,  so  far  as  it  affected  the  English  at  Madras,  will 
be  found  set  forth  in  the  next  chapter. 
X— 10  INDIA.    VOL.  I. 


218  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

From  a  Muhammadan  and  Sunni  point  of  view,  Aurang- 
zeb  was  a  great  and  good  sovereign.  He  was  zealous  for 
the  religion  of  the  prophet,  and  a  devoted  follower  of  the 
Koran.  He  had  no  political  sympathies  for  the  Hindus ;  on 
the  contrary,  he  was  violently  hostile  toward  them;  and 
after  he  was  firmly  established  on  the  throne  he  was  consist- 
ent in  the  pursuit  of  this  policy.  There  is  reason  to  believe 
that,  before  he  engaged  in  the  unhappy  war  in  Rajputana, 
his  administration  was  far  superior  to  that  of  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors, excepting  possibly  Akbar.  He  reserved  to  himself  the 
sole  right  of  passing  capital  sentences,  and  he  took  care  that 
his  orders  were  implicitly  obeyed.  Every  day  he  received 
and  studied  the  reports  which  he  received  from  the  "Wakiah- 
nawis,  or  court  writers,  as  to  what  was  going  on  in  different 
parts  of  his  dominions;  and  by  these  means  he  often  ac- 
quired information  which  enabled  him  to  check  the  corrup- 
tion or  oppression  of  the  Viceroys  of  provinces. 

One  instance  will  suffice.  Among  other  abuses  a  strange 
practice  had  grown  up  in  preceding  reigns  of  permitting 
Hindus  to  acquire  religious  merit  by  ransoming  condemned 
criminals.  On  one  occasion  some  Banians  had  offered  large 
sums  to  the  Nawab  of  Surat  for  the  release  of  certain  pro- 
fessed stranglers,  known  as  Thugs.  But  the  arrest  of  the 
Thugs  had  reached  the  ears  of  Aurangzeb,  and  his  orders 
were  paramount.  The  Thugs  were  condemned  to  be  hanged 
in  the  jungle.  The  Banians  accompanied  them  to  the  place 
of  execution,  and  gave  them  tobacco  and  sweetmeats  on  the 
way.  The  hardened  wretches  knew  their  fate,  but  walked 
along  as  gayly  as  if  going  to  a  wedding.  They  were  hung 
up  by  the  left  hand,  their  legs  were  cut  off,  and  they  were 
left  to  bleed  to  death  in  lingering  agony. 


WARREN    HASTINGS 


India,  vol.  one. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  219 


CHAPTER    VII 
MOGHUL   EMPIRE— CIVILIZATION 

A.D.   1600   TO   1720 

THE  history  of  the  reigns  of  Moghul  sovereigns  throws 
but  little  light  upon  the  condition  of  the  people.  It 
brings  out  the  individuality  of  successive  monarchs; 
it  familiarizes  the  reader  with  court  life  in  cities  and  camps; 
and  it  tells  the  story  of  intrigues,  plots  and  treacheries.  But 
it  reveals  little  or  nothing  of  the  state  of  civilization  which 
prevailed  in  India  during  the  palmy  days  of  Moghul  rule. 
This  lack  of  information  is  calculated  to  convey  false 
ideas  as  regards  the  happiness  or  otherwise  of  the  people. 
The  character  of  the  administration  is  confounded  with  that 
of  the  reigning  sovereign ;  and  if  the  Padishah  is  self-willed, 
self-indulgent,  and  vicious,  like  Jehangir  or  Shah  Jehan,  the 
conclusion  is  drawn  that  the  administration  is  equally  selfish 
and  tyrannical,  and  regardless  of  the  welfare  of  the  masses. 
But  this  inference  would  be  fallacious.  The  Padishah  was 
certainly  a  despot ;  his  will  was  law ;  and  his  influence  was 
great  for  good  or  evil.  The  local  Viceroys,  especially  during 
the  reigns  of  Jehangir  and  Shah  Jehan,  may  have  been  cor- 
rupt and  grasping  to  the  last  degree.  But  the  Moghul  ad- 
ministration was  not  the  handiwork  of  individuals  or  gen- 
erations ;  it  was  the  growth  of  centuries,  kneaded  into  shape 
by  the  experience  of  ages,  hedged  around  by  checks  which 
are  not  always  visible  to  the  historian,  and  controlled  by  the 
latent  force  of  custom,  habit,  and  public  opinion,  to  which 
the  most  despotic  princes  and  governors  are  occasionally 
compelled  to  bow. 

The  first  element  of  civilization  is  free  and  easy  commu- 


220  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

nication;  and  during  the  greater  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century  this  was  by  no  means  wanting  in  India.  The  roads 
and  postal  arrangements  which  prevailed  throughout  the 
Moghul  empire,  during  the  reigns  of  Shah  Jehan  and  Au- 
rangzeb,  were  quite  as  advanced,  if  not  more  so,  than  those 
of  France  during  the  reign  of  Lewis  the  Fourteenth,  or 
those  of  England  under  Oliver  Cromwell  and  Charles  the 
Second.  Whether  they  were  Moghul  institutions  of  Tartar 
origin,  or  whether  they  were  inherited  from  the  great  Hindu 
sovereigns  of  antiquity,  such  as  Asoka  or  Siladitya,  may  be 
open  to  question ;  but  the  fact  of  the  superiority  of  the  means 
of  communication  throughout  the  Moghul  empire  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century  remains  the  same. 

The  most  famous  road  in  India  was  that  running  from 
Lahore  through  Delhi  to  Agra,  thus  uniting  the  three  great 
capitals  of  the  Moghul  empire.  It  was  shaded  with  trees  on 
either  side,  which  are  said  to  have  been  planted  by  every 
famous  sovereign  in  turn — Moghul,  Afghan,  and  Hindu. 
It  was  a  continuation  of  the  land  route  from  Ispahan  to 
Lahore,  via  Kandahar,  Kabul,  and  Atok,  which  was  open 
to  merchants  of  all  countries  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  Since  then  it  has  been  closed  against  travellers 
generally,  or  at  any  rate  against  European  travellers. 

Agra  was  thus  the  centre  of  the  road  system  in  India.  On 
the  northwest  it  was  connected  with  Delhi,  Lahore,  Kabul, 
and  Ispahan.  On  the  southeast  it  ran  through  Allahabad, 
Benares,  Patna,  and  Dacca,  and  thus  brought  Agra  into 
easy  communication  with  Bihar  and  Bengal.  On  the  south 
it  was  connected  with  the  Dekhan  by  a  road  which  ran  to 
Golkonda,  near  the  modern  Hyderabad,  via  Burhanpur  and 
Deoghur. 

Surat,  the  Moghul  port  at  the  mouth  of  Tapti,  was  an 
emporium  of  trade,  and  another  centre  of  the  road  system. 
It  was  connected  with  Agra  by  two  lines  of  road;  one  run- 
ning near  the  coast,  via  Baroche,  Baroda,  and  western 
Rajputana;  the  other  running  more  into  the  interior,  via 
Burhanpur,  Sir  on  j,  and  Gwalior. 


tMUHAMMADAN    INDIA 

These  lines  of  route  were  not  metalled  roads  like  those 
of  modern  times.  They  were  little  better  than  rough  path- 
ways, often  running  through  jungles,  or  over  rivers  and 
.  mountains.  They  were  often  so  uneven  that  wagons  were 
only  kept  from  overturning  by  two  ropes  thrown  across  each 
wagon,  and  held  tight  by  two  men  walking  on  either  side. 

Natives  generally  travelled  in  a  light  coach  with  two 
seats,  which  was  drawn  by  two  oxen.  Tavernier  travelled 
in  this  way  through  the  greater  part  of  India.  He  carried 
his  cloak,  bag,  mattress,  and  quilt  on  the  spare  seat;  and  a 
short  supply  of  provisions  and  small  vessel  of  wine  in  a  box 
under  the  coach.  Some  travellers  rode  on  oxen ;  but  in  that 
case  it  was  necessary  to  see  that  their  horns  were  not  more 
than  a  foot  long ;  for  if  the  beast  was  stung  by  flies,  he  was 
apt  to  toss  his  horns  back  and  gore  the  stomach  of  the  rider. 

But  if  the  roads  of  Moghul  India  were  as  good  as  those 
of  France  and  England,  hotel  accommodation  was  infinitely 
inferior.  The  excellence  of  English  inns  in  the  seventeenth 
century  is  duly  extolled  by  Lord  Macaulay.  But  in  Moghul 
India  there  were  no  hotels  properly  so  called ;  nothing  but 
caravanserais  and  serais.  Caravanserais  were  large  com- 
modious buildings  constructed  out  of  charity  or  ostentation, 
or  for  the  protection  of  caravans  against  refractory  Rajas. 
Here  travellers  found  accommodation  and  shelter,  but  were 
obliged  to  procure  all  necessaries  from  the  neighboring  bazar. 
Serais  were  mere  enclosures,  in  which  some  fifty  or  sixty 
huts  of  mud  and  straw  were  surrounded  by  a  fence  or  wall. 
There  were  men  and  women  at  these  places,  who  sold  flour, 
rice,  butter,  and  herbs ;  and  they  also  made  it  their  business 
to  bake  bread,  and  boil  rice.  If  there  happened  to  be  a 
Muhammadan  at  a  serai,  he  would  go  to  a  neighboring  town 
and  buy  a  piece  of  mutton  or  a  fowl  for  a  European  travel- 
ler ;  but  no  flesh  meat  of  any  kind  was  procurable  from  the 
Hindus.  The  people  who  sold  bread  and  boiled  rice  always 
cleansed  a  hut  for  the  traveller  to  sleep  in ;  and  put  in  a  little 
bedstead  or  charpoy,  on  which  the  traveller  laid  his  mattress 
and  quilt. 


222  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

But  travelling  always  had  its  inconveniences  and  dan- 
gers. In  the  hot  weather  the  caravanserais  were  like  ovens ; 
in  the  winter  nights  they  were  often  bitterly  cold ;  while  the 
smell  of  beasts  and  their  drivers  and  the  biting  of  ants  and 
mosquitoes  were  often  intolerable.  Sometimes  the  traveller 
met  a  caravan  of  several  thousands  of  oxen,  carrying  grain 
or  salt;  and  if  the  way  was  narrow  he  might  be  detained 
two  or  three  days  until  the  whole  caravan  had  passed.  Some- 
times there  was  scarcity  of  water  or  provisions.  Sometimes 
it  was  necessary  to  travel  during  the  night,  and  rest  in  the 
day  time,  on  account  of  the  heat.  If  the  traveller  halted  in 
a  fortified  town,  he  had  to  be  careful  to  leave  it  before  sun- 
set, or  he  might  find  the  gates  shut  for  the  night,  and  be 
detained  another  day.  The  best  way  was  to  leave  the  city 
in  the  afternoon  with  the  requisite  supply  of  provisions,  and 
rest  under  a  tree,  or  some  other  shady  spot,  until  it  was  cool 
enough  to  begin  the  journey.  Again,  there  was  always 
danger  from  wild  beasts,  such  as  tigers  and  panthers ;  and 
there  was  danger,  especially  in  travelling  through  Rajputana 
or  Central  India,  of  being  attacked  by  brigands  and  high- 
waymen of  various  degrees. 

Every  European  traveller  found  it  necessary  to  hire  from 
twenty  to  thirty  horsemen,  who  carried  bows  and  arrows, 
or  else  swords  and  bucklers.  But  robberies  in  general  were 
compounded  for  by  the  payment  of  blackmail  or  transit 
duty,  at  so  much  a  head,  or  at  so  much  a  wagon.  Some- 
times there  was  a  wrangle  ending  in  bloodshed;  but  if  the 
traveller  kept  his  temper  the  difficulty  could  generally  be  ar- 
ranged. The  brigands  were  not  as  a  rule  professed  thieves, 
but  Rajput  outlaws  or  rebels,  so-called  Rajas,  who  were 
content  to  mulct  a  traveller  or  a  caravan,  and  then  would  es- 
cort the  party  in  safety  through  then*  respective  territories. 
Sometimes  Aurangzeb  attacked  one  or  other  of  these  petty 
Rajas,  and  slaughtered  him  and  his  subjects.  At  one 
place  was  to  be  seen  a  tower  full  of  windows,  and  a  bleed- 
ing head  in  every  window,  as  trophies  of  one  of  these 
massacres. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  223 

There  were,  however,  professional  thieves,  afterward 
known  as  Thugs,  who  infested  Guzerat,  and  especially 
haunted  the  imperial  highroad  between  Agra  and  Delhi. 
They  went  about  disguised  as  peaceful  travellers,  and  made 
acquaintance  with  those  they  found  on  the  way,  and  be- 
guiled the  time  with  pleasant  conversation,  until  they  all 
rested  under  a  shady  tree.  Suddenly,  at  a  signal  from  the 
chief,  every  Thug  threw  his  noose  round  the  neck  of  his 
allotted  victim,  and  strangled  him,  rifled  him  and  buried 
him,  with  a  rapidity  which  defied  detection.  Sometimes  a 
handsome  damsel,  with  dishevelled  hair,  appeared  sitting  at 
the  wayside,  weeping  and  moaning  over  her  misfortunes. 
Compassion  and  admiration  might  tempt  a  traveller  to  speak 
to  her,  but  if  so  he  was  doomed.  She  soon  had  the  noose 
round  his  throat,  and  either  strangled  him  on  the  spot,  or 
stunned  him  until  her  comrades  came  up  and  finished  the 
work  of  murder. 

Native  grandees  travelled  in  rich  palanquins,  lined  with 
silk  or  velvet,  and  covered  with  scarlet  or  cloth-of-gold. 
Sometimes  they  were  accompanied  by  their  wives  and  fam- 
ilies, and  attended  by  a  large  retinue  of  soldiers  and  ser- 
vants, with  led  horses,  elephants,  and  banners.  Sometimes 
a  Muhammadan  dervish  travelled  in  great  state  in  like  man- 
ner, surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  disciples  and  followers. 

Further  south,  outside  the  Moghul  frontiers,  a  traveller 
might  meet  a  famous  Hindu  saint  or  Guru,  mounted  on  an 
elephant,  or  carried  in  a  palanquin,  surrounded  by  a  host  of 
religious  mendicants.  Sometimes  a  traveller  met  a  pair  of 
idols,  male  and  female,  going  in  grand  procession  on  a  pil- 
grimage to  Ramisseram,  or  some  other  holy  place,  accom- 
panied by  Brahmans  and  dancing-girls,  music,  and  banners, 
and  a  nondescript  gathering  of  worshippers  of  both  sexes  and 
all  ages. 

Travelling  among  the  Hindu  kingdoms  of  the  Peninsula 
was  more  difficult  than  in  Moghul  India.  In  the  Penin- 
sula there  were  no  roads  at  all,  and  all  travelling  was  per- 
formed in  palanquins,  not  only  in  the  seventeenth  century, 


324  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

but  throughout  the  eighteenth,  and  during  many  years  of 
the  nineteenth.  The  palanquin-bearers  of  the  Peninsula 
were  generally  strong  men  from  the  Telinga  country,  and 
they  went  at  a  faster  rate  than  in  any  other  part  of 
India. 

The  carrying  trade  of  India  was  monopolized  by  a  hered- 
itary caste  of  oxen-drivers,  known  as  Manaris  and  Brinjar- 
ries.  Their  caravans  are  described  by  Tavernier  as  consist- 
ing sometimes  of  oxen,  and  sometimes  of  wagons.  They 
were  to  be  found  in  all  parts  of  India,  from  Comorin  to 
Surat  and  Agra.  They  were  a  nomad  race,  dwelling  in 
tents  with  their  wives  and  families,  and  going  about  with 
their  oxen  and  cattle,  whom  they  loved  like  their  own 
children. 

The  Manaris  were  divided  into  four  tribes,  each  compris- 
ing about  a  hundred  thousand  souls,  and  each  distinguished 
from  the  other  three  by  a  particular  caste  mark  on  their 
foreheads.  Each  tribe  was  devoted  to  the  carriage  of  one 
or  other  of  the  four  chief  commodities  of  India;  namely, 
corn,  rice,  millet,  and  salt:  it  carried  its  own  particular 
commodity  to  the  place  where  it  was  most  wanted,  but 
never  dealt  with  the  other  three  articles,  nor  followed  any 
other  avocation  whatever.  A  caravan  of  oxen  consisted  of 
several  thousand  of  those  animals  loaded  on  the  back  with 
the  same  commodity.  A  caravan  of  wagons  consisted  of 
one  or  two  hundred  large  carts,  each  drawn  by  ten  or 
twelve  oxen,  and  attended  by  four  soldiers,  as  already 
stated,  to  prevent  it  from  being  overturned. 

Every  caravan  had  its  own  chief,  who  affected  as  much 
state  as  a  Raja,  and  wore  a  necklace  of  pearls.  If  the  cara- 
van of  corn  met  the  caravan  of  salt,  there  were  fierce  quar- 
rels as  to  who  should  give  way,  which  often  ended  in  tumult 
and  bloodshed.  Aurangzeb  is  said  to  have  attempted  a 
reconciliation  between  the  two,  but  it  does  not  appear 
whether  it  was  successful. 

The  women  of  the  Manaris  wore  calico  petticoats  folded 
several  times  from  their  waists  downward;  and  they  tat- 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA 

tooed  the  upper  parts  of  their  bodies  with  flowers.  They 
painted  these  punctures  in  various  colors  made  from  the 
juice  of  grapes,  so  that  their  skin  appeared  to  be  made  of 
flowers. 

Every  caravan  had  its  priests  and  idol.  Every  morning, 
while  the  men  were  loading  their  oxen,  and  the  women  were 
folding  the  tents,  the  priests  set  up  a  serpent  in  wreaths  on 
a  perch  six  or  seven  feet  high  in  the  most  convenient  part 
of  the  camp.  Then  all  the  people  proceeded  in  files  to  wor- 
ship this  serpent,  and  the  women  .walked  three  times  round 
it.  After  the  ceremony  the  priests  took  charge  of  the  idol, 
and  placed  it  on  an  ox  which  was  set  apart  for  the  purpose; 
and  the  caravan  set  out  on  its  daily  journey  to  some  new 
camping-ground. 

The  foot-post  in  India  was  another  peculiar  institution. 
Old  travellers  in  India,  from  Roe  downward,  make  frequent 
mention  of  this  foot-post.  The  several  news-writers,  or 
Wakiahnawis,  sent  their  reports  to  the  Padishah  from  the 
several  cities  of  the  empire  by  these  runners.  On  every 
road,  at  an  interval  of  six  miles  there  was  a  kind  of  hut  or 
post-office.  Every  runner  that  came  up  threw  his  letters 
on  the  floor  of  this  hut,  as  it  was  a  bad  omen  to  give  them 
into  a  man's  hand.  The  runner  appointed  to  go  to  the  next 
stage  picked  up  the  letters,  and  set  off  at  full  speed.  At 
night  he  was  guided  by  the  trees  on  either  side  of  the  road ; 
and  where  there  were  no  trees,  heaps  of  stones  were  set  up 
at  every  five  hundred  paces,  and  kept  whitewashed  by  the 
inhabitants  of  the  nearest  village.  The  result  was  that  the 
foot-post  was  swifter  than  a  horseman ;  for  at  night  the  horse- 
man was  obliged  to  go  slowly  with  a  man  carrying  a  torch 
on  either  side,  while  the  foot-post  ran  on  undeterred  by 
darkness  or  storm. 

The  administration  of  justice  was  much  the  same  through- 
out the  Moghul  empire.  It  had  been  rather  loose  during  the 
reigns  of  Jehangir  and  Shah  Jehan,  but  had  been  kept  under 
strict  supervision  by  Aurangzeb.  Every  town  had  a  Nawab 
or  governor,  who  administered  all  civil  justice,  but  left  crim- 


226  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

inal  cases  to  the  Kotwal.1  The  Nawab  was  assisted  by  a 
Kazi,  who  was  supposed  to  be  learned  in  Muhammadan  law ; 
and  there  was  always  a  Mullah  or  Mufti,  who  superintended 
all  matters  pertaining  to  the  Muhammadan  religion. 

The  Nawab  generally  rendered  speedy  justice.  If  a  man 
sued  another  for  a  debt,  he  had  either  to  show  an  obligation, 
or  produce  two  witnesses,  or  take  an  oath.  If  he  was  a 
Christian  he  swore  on  the  Gospels;  if  a  Muhammadan  he 
swore  on  the  Koran ;  and  if  a  Hindu  he  swore  on  the  Cow. 
Many  Hindus,  however,  preferred  to  lose  their  cause  rather 
than  swear,  as  they  had  a  strong  aversion  to  such  a  cere- 
mony. 

The  Nawab  left  all  criminal  affairs  to  the  Kotwal.  This 
was  the  most  important  official  next  to  the  Nawab.  The 
Kotwal  discharged  the  functions  of  magistrate  and  judge, 
and  was  also  head  of  the  police  and  superintendent  of  the 
prison.  He  ordered  criminals  to  be  whipped  or  cudgelled  in 
his  presence,  either  in  his  own  house  or  at  the  place  where 
the  crime  had  been  committed.  He  went  abroad  on  horse- 
back, attended  by  several  officers  on  foot;  some  carrying 
batons  and  great  whips;  others  carrying  lances,  swords, 
targets,  and  iron  maces;  but  every  man  had  a  dagger  at  his 
side.  At  night  he  paraded  the  streets,  and  set  guards  at 
different  places;  and  any  man  found  abroad  in  the  streets 
was  committed  to  prison,  and  rarely  released  without  being 
whipped  or  bastinadoed. 

While  the  Kotwal  maintained  peace  and  order  in  the 
town,  an  officer  known  as  the  Foujdar  carried  out  the  same 
duties  in  the  surrounding  country.  The  Foujdar  exercised 
the  same  authority  in  the  district  that  the  Kotwal  exercised 
in  the  town. 

Dr.  Fryer,  a  surgeon  in  the  service  of  the  East  India 
Company,  travelled  in  India  between  1673  and  1681,  and 

1  There  is  some  confusion  in  the  use  of  Moghul  titles.  The  Viceroy  of  a 
province  was  commonly  known  as  a  Subahdar.  The  Governor  of  a  town  or  dis- 
trict was  properly  a  Nawab ;  and  such  a  Nawab  was  in  general  subordinate  to 
the  Subahdar  of  the  province.  Sometimes  the  Foujdar  assumed  the  title  of 
Nawab,  and  the  Nawab  assumed  the  title  of  Subahdar. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  227 

has  left  some  graphic  descriptions  of  India  at  a  time  when 
Sivaji  was  harassing  the  Dekhan,  and  Aurangzeb  was  pre- 
paring for  his  persecuting  wars  in  Rajputana. 

Dr.  Fryer  went  in  the  first  instance  to  Masulipatam,  a 
port  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  near  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Kistna.  It  was  an  emporium  of  trade  on  the  coast  of  Coro- 
mandel, just  as  Surat  was  an  emporium  on  the  coast  of 
Malabar.  But  Surat  belonged  to  the  Great  Moghul,  while 
Masulipatam  belonged  to  the  Sultan  of  Golkonda,  who  had 
not  as  yet  been  conquered  by  Aurangzeb. 

Masulipatam  was  a  favorable  type  of  a  Muhammadan 
city  in  India.  The  principal  streets  were  broad,  and  the 
buildings  good.  The  better  sort  of  houses  were  built  of 
wood  and  plaster,  having  balconies  with  latticed  windows, 
and  a  stately  gateway  below  leading  into  a  square  court 
with  a  tank  in  the  middle  and  a  terrace  walk  all  round  it. 
The  poorer  sort  of  houses  were  mere  huts,  like  thatched 
beehives,  walled  round  with  mud. 

The  Muhammadans  at  Masulipatam  kept  a  strict  hold 
on  the  Hindus,  intrusting  them  with  no  place  of  importance, 
but  treating  them  as  mechanics  and  serving-men.  The 
richer  sort  lived  in  great  splendor,  priding  themselves  upon 
having  a  numerous  retinue  and  handsome  followers.  They 
were  grave  and  haughty,  taking  great  delight  in  sitting 
cross-legged  on  chairs  at  their  doors,  and  smoking  their 
hookahs  with  much  pomp  and  circumstance.  They  clois- 
tered up  then-  women  from  the  eyes  of  all  men.  Sometimes 
a  woman  went  abroad  in  a  palanquin,  but  she  was  always 
closely  veiled,  and  it  would  have  been  death  for  any  man  to 
attempt  to  see  her  face. 

The  Hindus  had  no  such  strictness.  The  Hindu  women 
went  abroad  in  the  open  air,  adorned  with  chains  and  ear- 
rings, jewels  in  their  noses,  and  golden  rings  on  their  toes. 

The  people  celebrated  their  festivals,  and  especially  their 
weddings,  with  much  show  and  splendor.  They  were  com- 
monly performed  at  night  with  the  noise  of  drums,  trumpets, 
and  fifes.  The  poorest  Hindu,  except  among  artificers  and 


228  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

low-caste  men,  had  a  week's  jollity  at  his  marriage;  going 
about  in  a  palanquin,  attended  by  guards  carrying  swords, 
targets,  and  javelins,  while  others  bore  ensigns  denoting  the 
honor  of  their  caste.  But  if  any  low-caste  man  attempted 
the  like,  he  was  dragged  back  to  his  quarters  by  the  hair  of 
his  head. 

The  administration  of  justice  at  Masulipatam  was  bar- 
barous in  comparison  with  that  in  the  Moghul's  territories. 
Capital  sentences  were  carried  out  immediately  after  convic- 
tion, and  the  offender  was  either  dismembered  or  impaled. 
In  cases  of  murder  the  nearest  kinsman  of  the  murdered 
person  was  required  to  prosecute  the  offender  and  to  execute 
him.  He  began  to  cut  the  murderer  to  pieces,  and  then  the 
rabble  rushed  in  and  finished  him. 

Dr.  Fryer  sailed  from  Masulipatam  to  Madras,  about 
three  hundred  miles  to  the  south.  In  1639  the  English  had 
bought  a  strip  of  coast  territory  from  one  of  the  Hindu  Rajas 
of  the  Peninsula.  It  was  only  six  miles  long  and  one  mile 
inland,  but  it  is  famous  as  being  the  first  territorial  posses- 
sion which  the  English  acquired  in  India.  Here  they  built 
a  factory,  and  raised  a  wall  round  it  mounted  with  cannon, 
and  gave  it  the  name  of  Fort  St.  George.  In  a  few  years 
two  towns  had  grown  up  in  the  neighborhood  outside  the 
wall.  The  one  was  occupied  by  Armenians  and  other  for- 
eign merchants,  who  were  glad  to  live  under  the  protection 
of  the  English.  The  other  was  a  larger  village  or  town  of 
weavers  and  other  artisans  who  were  mostly  in  the  employ 
of  the  English  merchants.  None  but  Europeans  lived  in  the 
fort,  which  was  known  as  "White  town ;  while  the  Armenian 
and  native  quarters  went  by  the  general  name  of  Black 
town.  The  whole  settlement  was  known  as  Madras,  but 
'the  origin  of  this  name  is  unknown. 

Some  years  afterward  the  Sultan  of  Golkonda  pushed  his 
conquests  southward  into  the  Peninsula.  The  Hindu  Raja, 
who  sold  the  land  to  the  English,  fled  away  to  the  westward 
and  disappears  from  history.  The  generals  of  the  Sultan 
tried  to  capture  Madras,  but  were  baffled  by  the  guns  of 


MQHAMMADAN    INDIA  229 

Fort  St.  George.  The  English,  however,  agreed  to  pay  the 
Sultan  the  same  rent  which  they  had  previously  paid  the 
Raja,  namely,  twelve  hundred  pagodas  per  annum,  or  about 
five  hundred  pounds  sterling. 

The  generals  of  the  Sultan  captured  the  neighboring 
Portuguese  settlement  at  St.  Thome,  and  carried  off  the 
guns  from  the  fortifications.  The  Portuguese  fled  to  Fort 
St.  George,  and  were  welcomed  by  the  English,  as  adding 
to  the  strength  and  security  of  their  settlement.  About  this 
time  a  French  fleet  appeared  off  the  coast  and  took  posses- 
sion of  St.  Thome.  These  little  wars  are  forgotten  now,  but 
created  no  little  excitement  when  Fryer  visited  the  place. 

Fryer  was  paddled  over  the  surf  at  Madras  by  one  of  the 
same  kind  of  native  boats  that  are  still  in  use.  It  was  not 
fastened  by  nails,  which  would  have  been  wrenched  out  by 
the  surf ;  but  the  timbers  were  sewn  or  tied  together  with 
strings.  These  strings  yielded  to  the  surf,  and  passengers 
were  carried  in  safety,  but  the  boats  were  apt  to  take  in  a 
good  deal  of  water. 

Fryer  landed  in  wet  clothes,  but  the  beach  was  so  scorch- 
ing hot  that  he  hurried  on  to  the  town.  Fort  St.  George 
presented  an  imposing  front  to  the  sea.  It  was  oblong, 
about  four  hundred  yards  in  length  from  north  to  south,  and 
one  hundred  yards  in  depth  from  east  to  west.  At  each 
corner  of  the  walls  was  a  bastion  mounted  with  guns,  and 
the  banner  of  St.  George  waved  bravely  over  the  whole. 
The  streets  inside  were  neat  and  clean.  There  were  about 
fifty  houses,  not  very  lofty,  because  it  was  a  garrison  town ; 
but  every  house  had  an  Italian  portico,  battlements  on  the 
roof,  and  a  terrace  walk,  and  there  was  a  row  of  trees  before 
the  doors.  There  were  no  public  structures,  except  the  Gov- 
ernor's house  in  the  centre,  and  a  small  chapel  where  the 
Portuguese  celebrated  mass. 

Sir  William  Langhorn  was  Governor  of  Madras,  and 
superintended  all  the  English  factories  on  the  coast  of  Coro- 
mandel,  as  well  as  those  on  the  Hughli  and  Ganges  as  far 
as  Patna. 


230  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

The  English  population  of  "White  town  scarcely  num- 
bered three  hundred  souls.  The  Portuguese  numbered  three 
thousand.  The  native  population  of  Black  town  and  adjoin- 
ing villages  included  thirty  thousand  Hindus  in  the  service 
of  the  Company;  but  there  were  hardly  forty  Muhammadans 
in  the  whole  settlement.  The  country  round  about  was 
sandy,  but  provisions  were  plentiful. 

Fryer  next  sailed  from  Madras  to  Bombay.  He  passed 
by  the  coast  of  Malabar,  and  noted  that  the  Dutch  were 
already  ousting  the  Portuguese  from  their  ports  at  Cochin 
and  elsewhere;  and  that  Sivaji,  a  rebel  against  the  Sultan 
of  Bijapur,  had  conquered  the  country  round  about  Goa. 
At  last  he  entered  the  harbor  of  Bombay.  It  was  a  mag- 
nificent bay,  capable  of  holding  a  thousand  of  the  finest  ships 
of  European  build. 

Bombay  had  been  made  over  to  the  English  some  ten  or 
twelve  years  before,  as  part  of  the  dowry  of  Catherine  of 
Portugal,  on  her  marriage  with  Charles  the  Second.  The 
English  found  a  government  house,  having  a  pleasant  gar- 
den with  terrace  walks  and  bowers ;  but  the  place  was  so 
poorly  fortified  that  the  Malabar  pirates  often  plundered 
the  native  villages  and  carried  off  the  inhabitants  as  slaves. 
The  English  soon  altered  this  state  of  things.  They  loaded 
the  terraces  with  cannon  and  built  ramparts  over  the  bowers. 
When  Fryer  landed,  Bombay  castle  was  mounted  with  a 
hundred  and  twenty  pieces  of  ordnance,  while  sixty  field- 
pieces  were  kept  in  readiness.  Only  a  few  months  before 
his  arrival,  the  Dutch  had  tried  to  capture  Bombay,  but 
were  forced  to  retire.  The  place,  however,  was  very  un- 
healthy. The  site  was  unwholesome  and  the  air  was  bad; 
and  these  evils  were  aggravated  by  the  intemperance  of  the 
English  settlers. 

From  Bombay,  Fryer  went  to  Surat.  The  place  was 
much  changed  since  Delia  Valle's  visit.  It  swarmed  with 
fakirs,  and  there  were  marks  on  all  sides  of  the  intolerant 
rule  of  Aurangzeb.  No  Christian  could  appear  in  the  streets 
of  Surat  in  good  clothes,  or  mounted  on  a  proper  horse, 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  231 

without  being  assailed  by  Muhammadan  beggars.  The 
Muhammadans  lived  in  good  houses  as  at  Masulipatam. 
The  Banians,  or  Hindu  brokers,  lived  in  wretched  sheds, 
with  three  or  four  families  crowded  into  one  hovel,  together 
with  goats,  cows,  and  calves.  But  they  had  good  reason 
for  what  they  did,  for  if  any  one  was  suspected  of  being  rich 
he  was  squeezed  by  the  Nawab  of  all  his  effects,  unless  he 
had  secured  the  protection  of  some  powerful  grandee. 

The  poorer  inhabitants  were  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Nawab  and  his  soldiers.  They  were  often  taken  from  their 
occupations  and  forced  to  work  for  the  Nawab.  Sometimes 
these  seizures  led  to  broils,  and  artisans  were  driven  to 
desperation,  and  murdered  their  families  and  then  ran 
"amok." 

Aurangzeb  had  already  begun  to  collect  the  Jezya  at 
Surat.  The  Hindus  were  pressed  to  become  Muhammadans. 
The  neighboring  Rajas  were  in  rebellion.  Many  Hindus  fled 
from  Surat  to  Bombay,  or  to  one  of  the  Portuguese  settle- 
ments. This  was  all  the  more  remarkable  to  Fryer,  because, 
as  he  writes,  if  the  Hindus  united  against  the  Muhamma- 
dans, they  would  be  as  a  thousand  to  one. 

In  1675  Fryer  left  Surat  and  returned  to  Bombay.  About 
this  time  the  Nawab  of  the  town  of  Joonere  required  a  Eu- 
ropean doctor  to  attend  on  one  of  his  wives.  The  Moghuls 
had  captured  the  fort  and  town  of  Joonere  from  the  Mahrat- 
tas,  and  the  place  was  a  bone  of  contention  between  the  two. 
Fryer  readily  undertook  the  journey  to  the  town  of  Joonere, 
although  it  was  one  of  some  danger.  The  country  was  des- 
olate; the  people  were  wretched  to  the  last  degree,  being 
plundered  alike  by  Moghuls  and  Mahrattas,  and  reduced  to 
utter  poverty  and  starvation.  Even  the  coolies  from  Bom- 
bay that  carried  Fryer's  luggage  pitied  the  misery  of  the  in- 
habitants, and  contrasted  it  with  their  own  prosperous  lives 
under  British  rule. 

Fryer  met  with  some  adventures  at  Joonere.  He  was 
not  allowed  to  see  the  sick  lady  until  the  astrologers  had 
fixed  on  a  fortunate  day  for  his  visit.  At  last  he  was  shown 


232  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

into  a  room  "where  there  was  a  bed  surrounded  with  a  cur- 
tain, and  the  hand  of  the  patient  was  placed  outside  the 
curtain  to  enable  him  to  feel  her  pulse.  To  his  great  sur- 
prise, the  pulse  was  that  of  a  perfectly  healthy  woman ;  and 
he  did  not  fail  to  say  so.  No  one,  however,  was  discon- 
certed; in  fact,  a  healthy  maidservant  had  been  placed  in 
the  bed  to  test  the  skill  of  the  English  doctor.  After  due 
explanation,  Fryer  was  permitted  to  feel  the  pulse  of  the 
sick  lady,  and  he  subsequently  effected  a  cure  by  bleeding. 
The  consequence  was,  that  other  ladies  demanded  to  be  bled 
likewise,  but  it  was  doubtful  whether  they  had  any  other 
object  in  view  beyond  satisfying  their  curiosity  as  regards 
the  English  doctor. 

Meanwhile  Fryer  had  many  discourses  with  the  Nawab 
of  the  town  of  Joonere.  He  discovered  that  the  Moghul 
generals  had  no  desire  to  conquer  Sivaji,  or  to  put  an  end  to 
the  wars  in  the  Dekhan.  So  long  as  the  war  lasted,  they 
made  much  money  by  keeping  small  bodies  of  troops  in  the 
field  while  drawing  the  pay  of  large  numbers. 

The  Nawab  of  the  fortress  of  Joonere  also  desired  to  see 
the  English  doctor.  In  all  Moghul  cities  the  Nawab  of  the 
fortress  had  a  separate  command  from  the  Nawab  of  the 
town.  The  visit  was  of  little  moment  beyond  revealing 
the  inside  of  a  Moghul  fortress.  The  place  was  of  some 
historical  importance,  as  Sivaji  had  been  born  within  the 
walls,  and  was  anxious  to  recover  possession  of  the  strong- 
hold. There  were  enough  provisions  stored  within  the  fort- 
ress to  support  a  thousand  families  during  a  seven  years' 
siege,  but  there  was  no  ammunition  except  stones,  and  two 
misshapen  brass  pieces  of  Hindu  mold. 

The  Nawab  was  a  Brahman  who  had  been  converted  to 
the  Muhammadan  religion.  He  secretly  agreed  to  surren- 
der the  fortress  to  Sivaji,  and  received  an  enormous  bribe  as 
a  reward;  but  when  the  day  arrived  and  seven  thousand 
Mahrattas  ascended  the  hill,  they  found  themselves  cut  off 
by  an  ambuscade,  and  were  all  slaughtered.  Such  treach- 
eries were  by  no  means  uncommon  in  olden  times. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  233 

Fryer  next  visited  the  town  of  Karwar,  to  the  south  </ 
Goa,  where  the  English  had  a  factory.  The  town  had  been 
recently  conquered  by  Sivaji;  but  the  factory  was  safe,  for 
the  English  kept  off  all  assailants  by  means  of  the  guns 
which  they  had  planted  on  their  factory  walls. 

Sivaji's  government  at  Karwar  resembled  that  of  the 
Moghuls.  He  appointed  one  governor  to  the  town,  and 
another  to  the  fortress ;  while  a  general  with  a  flying  army 
superintended  the  whole.  Sivaji  appointed  none  but  Brah- 
mans  to  places  of  trust  or  authority.  These  men  professed 
to  be  mightily  jealous  for  their  master's  dues;  but  they  al- 
ways managed  in  a  corner  to  get  more  for  themselves  than 
for  their  master.  Trade  was  impossible  in  Sivaji's  country 
unless  goods  could  be  carried  a  long  way  round  as  at  Kar- 
war. The  people  bitterly  complained  of  exactions  and  tor- 
ture; but  that  was  the  same  all  over  India;  and  even 
Brahmans  were  subjected  to  the  same  pains  and  indignities 
whenever  it  was  supposed  that  they  had  buried  their  wealth 
or  concealed  it  in  some  other  secret  fashion. 

Fryer  left  India  in  1681.  Nine  years  afterward,  in 
1689-90,  Aurangzeb  conquered  Bijapur  and  Golkonda,  and 
sent  his  armies  into  the  Peninsula.  The  English  of  Madras 
at  once  offered  to  pay  the  Moghul  the  same  yearly  rent  of 
twelve  hundred  pagodas,  which  they  had  paid  the  Sultan  of 
Golkonda;  but  the  Moghuls  threatened  to  dismantle  Fort 
St.  George  of  all  its  cannon.  The  whole  country  was  in  a 
troubled  ptate,  and  the  English  at  Madras  were  often  dis- 
turbed by  alarming  rumors.  At  last  it  appeared  that  the 
Nawab  of  the  conquered  territories  would  be  satisfied  with  a 
money  bribe;  and  a  present  of  ten  thousand  pagodas,  equiv- 
alent to  about  four  thousand  pounds  sterling,  was  sent  to  the 
Nawab  Zulfikar  Khan.  The  present  was  graciously  received, 
and  the  Nawab  was  further  mollified  by  timely  supplies  of 
provisions  and  ammunition. 

All  this  while  desultory  wars  were  being  carried  on  in  the 
Lower  Carnatic  between  the  Moghuls  under  Nawab  Zulfikar 
Khan  and  the  Mahrattas  under  Ram  Raja,  a  younger  son  of 


234  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

Sivaji.1  The  once  celebrated  hill  fortress  of  Jinji,  about 
eighty  miles  to  the  southwest  of  Madras,  was  the  bone  of 
contention  between  Zulfikar  Khan  and  Ram  Raja.  But 
the  story  of  the  struggle  is  tedious  and  bewildering.  There 
were  intrigues  and  treacheries  on  both  sides,  and  also  secret 
understandings  between  the  two,  which  excited  the  suspicion 
and  rage  of  Aurangzeb,  when  he  was  too  old  and  helpless  to 
interfere. 

In  1701-2  another  Nawab,  named  Daud  Khan,  succeeded 
Zulfikar  Khan.  He,  too,  demanded  a  present  of  ten  thou- 
sand pagodas  from  the  English  merchants  at  Madras.  Mr. 
Thomas  Pitt,  grandfather  of  the  great  Earl  of  Chatham, 
was  Governor  of  Madras,  and  he  resolutely  refused  to  pay 
the  money.  Daud  Khan  surrounded  Fort  St.  George  with 
a  large  force,  cut  off  all  supplies  of  provisions,  and  stopped 
all  trade.  Mr.  Pitt  held  out  for  three  months,  and  then 
deemed  it  expedient  to  pay  up  the  amount.  He  consoled 
himself  with  the  idea  that  the  Nawab  had  expended  a  great 
deal  more  than  ten  thousand  pagodas  during  the  siege  of  the 
place,  and  was  never  likely  to  repeat  the  demand. 

After  this  remarkable  siege  matters  quieted  down  at 
Madras.  The  yearly  rent  was  regularly  paid  to  the  Nawab, 
and  presents  were  occasionally  sent  to  the  Nawab  and  his 
grandees.  The  result  was  that,  for  a  period  of  thirty  years 
after  the  death  of  Aurangzeb,  the  English  at  Madras  bought 
and  sold,  and  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  their  way,  without 
interference  or  hindrance  from  Mahratta  or  Moghul. 

Meanwhile  the  English  settlements  in  Bengal,  after  a 
hard  struggle  with  the  Moghul's  officers,  had  become  the 
most  important  and  profitable  in  India.  As  far  back  as  1640 
in  the  reign  of  Shah  Jehan,  the  English  had  been  allowed 
to  establish  a  factory  at  Hughli,  about  a  hundred  miles  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Ganges,  where  they  hoped  to  succeed  to 
the  trade  which  had  been  ere  while  carried  on  by  the  Portu- 


1  Ram  Raja  had  taken  possession  of  the  Mahratta  dominion  in  the  Peninsula, 
when  his  eldest  brother  Sambhaji  had  succeeded  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Konkan. 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  235 

guese.  They  founded  branch  factories  at  Patna,  Dacca,  and 
other  half-forgotten  localities.  From  Patna  they  procured 
saltpetre,  opium,  raw  silk,  and  cotton  piece-goods.  From 
Dacca  they  obtained  those  fine  muslins  which  were  long  the 
wonder  and  admiration  of  the  civilized  world.  The  result 
was  that  the  English  settlements  in  Bengal  were  withdrawn 
from  the  control  of  the  Governor  of  Madras,  and  placed 
under  a  separate  governor,  a  Mr.  Job  Charnock,  who  soon 
became  one  of  the  most  distinguished  Englishmen  in  India. 

But  the  English  traders  in  Bengal  were  unable  to  protect 
themselves  with  fortifications  and  guns  as  they  had  done  at 
Madras  and  Bombay.  In  Madras  they  had  built  Fort  St. 
George  and  mounted  their  cannon  before  the  Muhammadans 
had  entered  the  Peninsula ;  and  consequently  they  were  en- 
abled to  set  the  Moghul  generals  at  defiance.  Again,  their 
cannon  on  Bombay  castle  sufficed  to  keep  off  the  Mahrattas. 
But  Bengal  had  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Moghuls  ever 
since  the  reign  of  Akbar,  and  they  had  suffered  too  much 
from  the  fortifications  and  cannon  of  the  Portuguese  at 
Hughli  to  permit  of  any  such  formidable  settlements  for 
the  future.  The  English,  Dutch,  and  French  all  had  fac- 
tories in  the  neighborhood  of  Hughli ;  but  neither  were  al- 
lowed to  build  any  walls  or  semblance  of  fortifications  of 
any  sort  or  kind.  Neither  were  they  allowed  to  carry  on 
any  hostilities  against  each  other  within  the  territories  of  the 
Moghul;  and  thus  while  wars  might  be  raging  between 
English  and  Dutch,  or  English  and  French,  in  other  parts 
of  the  world,  the  conflicting  nationalities  were  compelled  to 
keep  the  peace  in  Bengal. 

During  the  bigoted  reign  of  Aurangzeb,  the  English  in 
Bengal  were  subjected  to  oppressions  and  exactions,  which 
had  been  unknown  in  the  tolerant  days  of  Jehangir  and 
Shah  Jehan.  An  attempt  was  made  to  collect  Jezya  from 
the  English,  but  that  was  warded  off  by  timely  presents  to 
the  Nawab.  In  other  ways  the  English  were  exposed  to  in- 
sults which  were  beyond  all  endurance;  and  at  last,  as  a 
crowning  indignity,  Mr.  Job  Charnock,  the  Governor  of  all 


236  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

the  English  settlements  in  Bengal,  was  arrested  and  scourged 
by  order  of  the  Nawab. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  English  declared  war 
against  the  Moghul.  In  1685  two  squadrons  were  sent  out 
by  James  the  Second ;  the  one  to  cut  off  all  Moghul  ships 
trading  with  Surat,  and  the  other  to  operate  against  the 
Nawab  of  Bengal.  The  factory  at  Surat  was  removed  out 
of  Moghul  territory  to  the  new  settlement  at  Bombay.  The 
English  in  Bengal  collected  all  their  goods  from  their  sev- 
eral factories,  and  prepared  to  carry  them  to  Chittagong, 
the  frontier  port  toward  Arakan. 

The  operations  of  the  squadron  off  Surat  were  most  suc- 
cessful. Cargoes  belonging  to  the  subjects  of  the  Moghul 
were  captured  to  the  value  of  a  million  sterling.  The  mer- 
chants of  Surat  would  no  longer  venture  on  voyages  at  sea; 
while  native  manufactures  were  at  a  standstill,  and  mechan- 
ics were  thrown  out  of  employment  and  complaining  loudly 
of  famine.  Aurangzeb  sent  officers  to  listen  to  the  griev- 
ances of  the  English,  and  mitigate  the  oppressions  to  which 
they  had  been  exposed.  A  treaty  was  concluded  in  1687, 
under  which  the  English  were  permitted  to  return  to  their 
factories,  and  guaranteed  certain  rights  and  privileges  which 
they  had  hitherto  been  denied. 

The  operations  in  Bengal  had  been  ill-judged  and  not 
altogether  successful,  but  still  they  had  sufficed  to  alarm  the 
Nawab.  The  war  was  brought  to  a  close  for  a  while,  but 
Charnock  had  no  faith  in  the  treaty  and  hesitated  to  return 
to  Hughli.  Meanwhile  the  commander  of  the  English  squad- 
ron, a  hot-headed  captain  named  Heath,  was  provoked  by 
the  delays  and  evasions  of  the  Nawab.  He  opened  up  a 
communication  with  the  King  of  Arakan,  and  sailed  to 
Chittagong  with  the  view  of  capturing  the  port  for  the 
king.  Finding  the  fortifications  stronger  than  he  expected, 
he  returned  to  Bengal,  and  offered  to  undertake  an  expedi- 
tion against  Arakan  in  behalf  of  the  Nawab.  Suddenly, 
however,  he  took  disgust  at  the  proceedings  of  the  Nawab, 
and  sailed  away  to  Madras  with  all  the  Company's  mer- 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  237 

chants  and  goods,  declaring  that  he  had  been  told  nothing 
but  lies  on  all  sides. 

This  conduct,  crazy  and  irregular  as  it  was,  brought  the 
Moghul  government  to  reason.  It  was  imagined  that  the 
contempt  displayed  by  Heath  arose  from  the  determination 
of  the  English  to  abandon  the  trade  of  Bengal.  A  new 
Nawab  was  appointed  to  Bengal,  and  he  sent  pressing 
overtures  to  Madras  for  the  return  of  the  English  to 
Hughli. 

The  result  was  that  Charnock  and  the  English  went  back 
to  Bengal,  but  they  did  not  return  to  their  factory  at  Hughli. 
Ultimately  they  were  allowed  to  rent  three  villages  about 
twenty  miles  nearer  the  mouth  of  the  river ;  and  all  duties 
and  customs  of  every  kind  were  commuted  by  the  yearly 
payment  of  three  thousand  rupees  to  the  treasury  at  Hughli. 
The  newly- acquired  territory  was  scarcely  half  the  size  of 
the  English  territory  at  Madras.  It  only  extended  three 
miles  along  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river  Hughli,  and  one 
mile  inland,  and  paid  a  yearly  rent  of  1,195  rupees.  But 
the  three  villages  have  become  historical.  Their  names  were 
Chutanutti,  Govindpore,  and  Kalighat.  They  were  the  nu- 
cleus of  the  city  of  Calcutta,  which  after  the  lapse  of  two 
centuries  is  now  the  capital  of  the  British  Empire  in  India 
and  the  greatest  European  city  in  the  eastern  world. 

Mr.  Job  Charnock  is  still  regarded  as  the  patriarch  of 
Bengal.  His  name  still  survives  in  the  station  of  Barrack- 
pore,  which  is  called  "Chanuk"  by  the  natives  to  this  day. 
Many  stories  have  been  told  of  his  eccentricities,  which  were 
household  words  in  a  bygone  generation.  He  saved  a  young 
Hindu  widow  from  burning  herself  with  her  deceased  hus- 
band, and  subsequently  married  her;  but  instead  of  convert- 
ing her  to  Christianity,  he  relapsed  into  a  kind  of  paganism. 
She  died  before  him,  and  ever  afterward  he  celebrated  the 
anniversary  of  her  death  by  sacrificing  a  cock  to  the  goddess 
Durga  over  her  tomb. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  persecu- 
tions of  Aurangzeb,  the  destruction  of  pagodas,  and  subver- 


238  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

sion  of  Hindu  worship,  drove  many  of  the  people  of  Bengal 
into  rebellion.  The  Europeans  complained  to  the  Nawab  of 
the  unprotected  state  of  their  factories.  He  told  them  to 
defend  themselves,  and  they  took  him  at  his  word.  They 
ran  up  walls  and  bastions  round  their  respective  factories, 
and  planted  them  with  cannon;  and  this  was  the  origin  of 
the  three  European  forts  or  towns,  namely,  the  English 
at  Calcutta,  the  French  at  Chandernagore,  and  the  Dutch  at 
Chinsura.  Both  Chandernagore  and  Chinsura  were  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Hughli,  and  consequently  about  twenty 
miles  from  Calcutta. 

A  few  years  after  the  death  of  Aurangzeb,  a  Captain 
Hamilton  visited  Calcutta,  and  has  left  a  description  of  the 
houses  and  English  inhabitants.  He  says  that  the  town 
was  built  without  order,  every  one  selecting  a  spot  best  fitted 
for  a  garden;  consequently  most  houses  had  a  garden  in 
front.  The  English  built  their  houses  near  the  river  side; 
but  the  natives  dwelt  more  inland.  Most  gentlemen  and 
ladies  in  Bengal  lived  splendidly  and  pleasantly.  They  dedi- 
cated the  forenoon  to  business;  they  then  took  their  dinners 
and  retired  to  rest  during  the  afternoon.  In  the  evening 
they  found  recreation  in  chaises  and  palanquins  in  the  fields 
or  gardens;  or  went  upon  the  river  in  budgerows,  and  di- 
verted themselves  with  fishing  or  fowling.  Before  night 
they  made  friendly  visits  to  one  another,  when  pride  and 
contention  did  not  spoil  society;  but  the  Captain  adds  that 
much  social  rivalry  often  existed  among  the  ladies,  just  as 
discord  and  faction  prevailed  among  the  men. 

The  garrison  at  Fort  William  generally  consisted  of  two 
or  three  hundred  soldiers,  but  they  were  not  so  much  em- 
ployed for  the  defence  of  the  settlement  as  to  guard  the  fleet 
coming  from  Patna  with  the  Company's  saltpetre,  piece- 
goods,  raw  silk,  and  opium.  Captain  Hamilton  remarks, 
that  the  English  Company  held  their  colony  direct  from  the 
Moghul,  and  consequently  had  no  reason  to  be  afraid  of  any 
enemies  coming  to  dispossess  them.  At  the  same  time  he 
predicted  that  if  they  again  declared  war  against  the  Mo- 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  239 

ghul,  the  Padishah  would  soon  end  the  quarrel  by  prohibit- 
ing his  subjects  from  trading  with  them. 

But  Bengal  was  only  half  conquered  by  the  Moghul. 
There  were,  says  Hamilton,  some  impertinent  and  trouble- 
some Rajas  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  between  the  Na- 
wab's  capital  at  Murshedabad  and  the  city  of  Patna,  who 
pretended  to  tax  all  goods  passing  through  their  territories, 
and  often  raised  forces  to  compel  payment.  But  a  detach- 
ment of  European  troops  from  Fort  "William  generally  cleared 
the  passage  up  the  river,  although  some  of  the  English  sol- 
diers were  occasionally  killed  in  the  skirmishes. 

From  the  death  of  Aurangzeb  in  1707,  to  the  year  1756, 
Calcutta  was  occasionally  threatened  by  the  Mahrattas  or 
mulcted  by  the  Nawab;  but  otherwise  it  enjoyed  a  profound 
peace,  and  was,  to  all  appearance,  as  secure  against  foreign 
aggression  as  any  seaport  town  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
The  English  settlement  was  like  an  oasis  of  European  civil- 
ization in  a  desert  of  Hinduism  and  Islam.  The  English 
factory,  with  its  depots,  workshops,  offices,  and  outlying 
"garden-houses,"  covered  about  a  hundred  acres  on  the 
bank  of  the  Hughli.  The  outward  life  of  the  English  at 
Calcutta  was  altogether  of  a  business  type.  They  bought, 
sold,  kept  accounts,  wrote  letters,  and  regulated  establish- 
ments and  expenditure.  Large  ships  from  Europe  brought 
woollen  goods,  cutlery,  iron,  copper,  and  quicksilver.  The 
same  ships  carried  away  cotton  piece-goods,  fine  muslins, 
silks,  indigo,  saltpetre,  spices,  and  Indian  rarities.  A  rise 
or  fall  in  the  price  of  saltpetre  in  Europe  was  of  more  inter- 
est to  the  English  merchants  at  Calcutta  than  the  war  be- 
tween the  Moghul  and  the  Mahrattas ;  and  a  failure  of  the 
silk  crop  in  the  up-country  stations  in  Bengal  and  Behar  was 
of  more  moment  to  the  Court  of  Directors  in  London  than 
the  death  of  a  Padishah,  or  the  bloody  struggles  between  his 
sons  for  the  succession  to  the  Moghul  throne. 


240  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 


CHAPTER  VIII 
MOGHUL  EMPIRE— DECLINE  AND  FALL 

A.D.  1707   TO  1748 

THE  death  of  Aurangzeb  awakened  the  Moghul  empire 
from  its  torpor ;  it  sent  a  thrill  through  the  provinces 
which  might  be  likened  to  galvanic  life.  For  years 
all  hopes  and  aspirations  of  princes  and  grandees  had  been 
in  abeyance  under  the  declining  but  monotonous  rule  of  the 
aged  Padishah.  His  sons  were  waiting  for  his  last  breath 
to  begin  that  fratricidal  struggle  for  the  throne  which  had 
broken  out  at  the  death,  or  before  the  death,  of  every  Mo- 
ghul sovereign  of  Hindustan  from  Akbar  downward.  The 
Moghul  generals  were  apparently  eager  to  throw  off  the 
religious  strictness  and  bigotry,  which  had  so  long  oppressed 
the  empire;  and  were  looking  forward  to  the  death  of  the 
old  Padishah  as  a  necessary  preliminary  to  the  beginning 
of  a  new  regime. 

The  last  years  of  Aurangzeb  were  saddened  by  fears  of 
the  catastrophe  which  would  accompany  or  follow  his  death. 
Indeed  throughout  the  latter  half  of  his  reign  he  had  been 
subject  to  constant  alarms  lest  he  should  share  the  fate  of 
his  father,  Shah  Jehan;  lest  his  sons  should  consign  him 
to  hopeless  captivity  and  begin  to  fight  for  the  throne  before 
death  had  carried  him  from  the  scene.  He  is  said  to  have 
formed  a  plan  for  averting  a  fratricidal  war  by  dismember- 
ing the  empire  and  dividing  it  among  his  three  sons.  But 
if  so  the  attempt  at  pacification  must  have  proved  a  failure. 
Scarcely  was  it  known  that  the  old  sovereign  had  expired, 
than  all  the  armies  of  the  empire  were  on  the  move,  and  hig 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  241 

three  sons  were  each,  in  turn,  prepared  to  seize  the  throne 
by  force  of  arms,  or  perish  upon  the  fatal  field. 

A  war  between  brethren  may  excite  the  passions  of  con- 
temporaries, but  cannot  enlist  the  sympathies  of  posterity. 
The  struggle  between  the  sons  of  Shah  Jehan  had  been  more 
or  less  associated  with  religion,  but  the  struggle  between  the 
sons  of  Aurangzeb  was  only  a  quarrel  for  an  inheritance. 
The  main  struggle  was  between  Shah  Alam,  the  eldest  son 
of  Aurangzeb,  and  Azam  Shah,  the  second  son;  and  the 
war  itself  is  said  to  have  turned  on  the  ill-timed  insolenee 
of  Azam  Shah,  and  the  consequent  disaffection  or  treachery 
of  his  affronted  generals.  A  desperate  battle  was  fought 
near  the  river  Chambal.  It  closed  in  a  horrible  carnage, 
in  which  Azam  and  his  two  sons  were  slain.  Shah  Alam 
ascended  the  throne  under  the  title  of  Bahadur  Shah. 
There  was  a  third  son,  the  rebel  Akbar,  who  had  fled  to 
Persia;  but  he  was  dead,  or  at  any  rate  out  of  the  fray. 
There  was  a  fourth  son  named  Kam  Bakhsh,  whose  fortunes 
demand  separate  consideration. 

Kam  Bakhsh,  whom  the  Greeks  would  have  called  Cam- 
byses,  had  been  nominated  by  Aurangzeb  to  rule  as  an  inde- 
pendent Sultan  over  the  newly-conquered  kingdoms  of  Bija- 
pur  and  Golkonda.  Bahadur  Shah  was  an  old  man,  and 
would  probably  have  consented  to  the  arrangement;  but  his 
sons  were  ambitious  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  empire. 
The  mother  of  Kam  Bakhsh  was  a  Christian ;  her  son  was 
supposed  to  be  a  Christian  likewise.  The  Mullahs  were 
stirred  up  to  protest  against  the  rule  of  a  Christian  Sultan; 
and  Bahadur  Shah  was  driven  to  work  the  destruction  of 
his  youngest  brother. 

The  course  of  events  had  a  remote  bearing  upon  the  fort- 
unes of  the  English  at  Madras.  Bahadur  Shah  ordered  let- 
ters to  be  written  to  Mr.  Thomas  Pitt,  the  Governor  of 
Madras,  to  prevent  the  young  prince  from  escaping  by  sea 
into  Persia.  At  the  same  time  Bahadur  Shah  confirmed 
all  the  rights  and  privileges  which  had  been  granted  to  the 
English  by  his  father  Aurangzeb.  But  these  precautions 
X— 11  INDIA.  VOL.  I. 


242  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

proved  unnecessary,  for  Kam  Bakhsh  was  defeated  and 
slain  on  the  field  of  battle  by  Nawab  Zulfikar  Khan. 

Bahadur  Shah  reigned  from  1707  to  1712,  but  has  left  no 
mark  in  history.  He  had,  in  the  first  instance,  to  face  a 
rebellion  of  the  Rajputs  in  Jaipur  and  Marwar.  The  perse- 
cuted Hindus  had  taken  advantage  of  the  death  of  Aurang- 
zeb  to  drive  out  all  the  Muhammadan  officers  who  had  been 
appointed  to  collect  Jezya,  and  convert  the  people  to  the 
religion  of  the  Koran.  The  movement  was  a  revolt  of  Hin- 
duism against  the  proselytizing  policy  of  Aurangzeb,  and 
Bahadur  Shah  was  anxious  to  suppress  it ;  but  at  this  mo- 
ment alarming  news  arrived  from  the  northwest.  The  Sikhs 
had  broken  out  in  revolt  in  the  Punjab,  and  committed  a 
series  of  murderous  excesses ;  and  Bahadur  Shah  was  com- 
pelled to  "forgive"  the  Rajputs,  and  march  with  all  haste  to 
Lahore. 

The  Sikhs  originally  were  not  a  nationality.  They  were 
a  mixed  community  of  Rajputs,  Jats,  and  other  races,  who 
had  been  formed  into  a  religious  brotherhood  about  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century  by  a  famous  prophet  named  Nanuk 
Guru.  Their  religious  faith  was  a  combination  of  the  tenets 
of  advanced  Shiahs  with  those  of  advanced  Hindus ;  it  turned 
upon  the  worship  of  the  Supreme  Spirit,  as  the  deity  alike 
of  Muhammadans  and  Hindus.  At  the  same  time  the  Sikhs 
reverenced  Krishna  and  Rama  as  incarnations  of  Vishnu; 
they  recognized  the  sacred  character  of  Brahmans ;  and  they 
strictly  prohibited  the  slaughter  of  cows.  Above  all,  they 
implicitly  obeyed  their  Guru  and  his  successors,  as  the  rep- 
resentatives of  God  upon  earth;  and  they  regarded  the 
teachings  of  each  in  turn  as  the  inspirations  of  the  Supreme 
Being. 

Such  a  religion  was  naturally  regarded  as  a  detestable 
heresy  by  a  strict  Sunni  like  Aurangzeb.  The  Sikhs  were 
persecuted  until  they  betook  themselves  to  the  northern 
mountains,  and  formed  military  clans  distinguished  by  a 
blue  dress  and  peculiar  manners.  The  fires  of  persecution 
raged  more  fiercely  than  ever.  Guru  Govind,  the  tenth  in 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  243 

descent  from  Nanuk, J  saw  his  strongholds  taken,  his  mother 
and  children  massacred,  and  his  followers  slain,  mutilated, 
or  driven  into  painful  exile.  At  last  Guru  Govind  was  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Moghuls,  and  executed  at  Gwalior  by  the 
command  of  Aurangzeb.2 

Such  severities  exalted  the  fanaticism  of  the  Sikhs  to  the 
highest  pitch  of  desperation.  A  new  spiritual  leader,  known 
as  Bandu  Guru,  inspired  them  with  a  spirit  of  vengeance 
against  their  persecutors.  They  broke  out  in  revolt,  de- 
stroyed mosques,  butchered  Mullahs,  and  massacred  the 
population  of  whole  towns  without  regard  to  sex  or  age. 
In  a  word,  they  fought  to  the  death  for  God  and  their  Guru; 
but  they  also  made  their  religion  a  cloak  for  plunder  and 
outrage  of  every  kind. 

Bahadur  Shah  found  it  necessary  to  make  Lahore  his 
capital,  and  to  carry  on  a  series  of  desultory  wars  against 
the  Sikhs.  The  details  are  of  no  moment ;  it  was  impossible 
to  dragoon  the  Sikhs  into  submission,  and  they  continued  to 
give  trouble  down  to  the  death  of  Bahadur  Shah  in  1712, 
and  indeed  for  many  years  afterward. 

Meanwhile  the  greater  part  of  the  Moghul  empire  had 
been  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Viceroys  of  provinces.  Little 
or  nothing  is  known  of  the  history,  beyond  the  fact  that 
some  kind  of  understanding  seems  to  have  been  concluded 
by  the  Viceroys  of  Guzerat  and  the  Dekhan  with  the  Mah- 
rattas  of  the  Konkan.  "When  Sambhaji,  son  and  successor 
of  Sivaji,  was  arrested  and  put  to  death  by  Aurangzeb^,  his 
little  son  Sahu,  or  Shao,  was  carried  away  prisoner  by  the 
conqueror,  and  brought  up  hi  the  zenana  of  the  Moghul. 
After  the  death  of  Aurangzeb,  this  boy  was  placed  on  the 
throne  of  the  Konkan,  in  the  city  of  Satara,  and  was  sup- 
posed to  reign  over  the  Mahratta  kingdom  as  a  vassal  of  the 
Great  Moghul. 


1  The  secular  name  of  this  Guru  Govind  was  Tugh  Bahadur.     Further  par- 
ticulars of  the  Sikhs  will  be  furnished  hereafter  in  dealing  with  the  British  ware 
against  the  Sikhs  and  final  conquest  of  the  Punjab. 

2  Another  story  says  that  Guru  Govind  was  assassinated  by  an  Afghan. 


244  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

But  this  arrangement  could  not  possibly  satisfy  the  Mah- 
ratta  claims  to  chout  or  blackmail,  which  extended  indefi- 
nitely over  a  great  part  of  the  Dekhan,  as  well  as  over  a  large 
extent  of  Guzerat  and  Malwa  to  the  northward.  These 
claims  were  of  a  most  vexatious  character,  and  were  pressed 
with  a  pertinacity  which  was  deaf  to  all  arguments.  To 
admit  them  involved  the  loss  of  one-fourth  of  the  land  rev- 
enue, while  it  abandoned  large  cultivated  tracts  to  the  rude 
collections  of  Mahratta  soldiery.  To  resist  them  was  as 
hopeless  as  an  attempt  to  resist  the  depredations  of  locusts. 
The  loose  bands  of  Mahratta  horse  were  here,  there,  and 
everywhere.  If  driven  off  by  the  advance  of  regular  troops, 
they  might  disappear  like  a  flock  of  crows ;  but  they  soon 
reappeared  elsewhere,  ravaging  the  country  with  fire  and 
sword  to  enforce  the  Mahratta  claims  to  chout  over  the  whole 
extent  of  territory. 

The  constitution  of  the  Mahratta  government  was  such 
that  Maharaja  Sahu  had  little  or  no  voice  in  the  matter.  It 
had  been  the  policy  of  Sivaji  to  keep  all  offices  of  state,  and 
all  collections  of  revenue,  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  Brah- 
mans ;  and  as  all  these  posts  became  hereditary  according  to 
Hindu  custom,  Maharaja  Sahu  found  himself  surrounded 
by  a  Brahmanical  hierarchy,  ostentatious  in  its  professions 
of  submission  and  obedience  to  the  grandson  of  the  great 
Sivaji,  while  practically  retaining  all  the  power  of  the  state 
in  jts  own  hands. 

Moreover,  the  personal  character  of  Maharaja  Sahu  was 
favorable  to  the  Brahman  ascendency.  He  had  neither  ca- 
pacity nor  energy  for  breaking  through  so  powerful  an  aris- 
tocracy. His  grandfather  Sivaji  was  bred  like  a  mountain 
eagle  amid  the  rude  independence  of  hills  and  jungles.  But 
Maharaja  Sahu  was  a  tame  bird,  brought  up  in  the  gilded 
cage  of  the  imperial  zenana.  He  was  given  to  pleasure,  with 
some  taste  for  field  sports ;  somewhat  touchy  as  regards  his 
personal  dignity;  proud  of  his  vassalage  to  the  Great  Mo- 
ghul,  although  occasionally  indulging  his  fancy  with  schemes 
of  conquest  and  empire.  The  Brahman  ministers  and  offi- 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA 

cials  well  knew  how  to  deal  with  these  weaknesses.  They 
invariably  treated  him  with  every  possible  respect,  and  took 
care  that  every  measure  of  state  should  appear  to  emanate 
from  himself,  and  be  carried  out  solely  in  his  name  as  the 
supreme  sovereign  of  the  Mahrattas ;  but  at  the  same  time 
they  molded  him  to  suit  their  own  purposes,  and  thus  pre- 
pared the  way  for  that  revolution  at  his  death  which  trans- 
ferred the  Mahratta  sovereignty  from  the  grandson  of  Sivaji 
to  the  family  of  the  Brahman  minister. 

The  chief  Brahman  minister  was  known  as  the  Peishwa; 
and  during  the  reign  of  Maharaja  Sahu,  the  Peishwa  for  the 
time  being  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  ruling  power. 
It  was  the  Peishwa  who  issued  commissions  to  the  different 
Mahratta  leaders  to  collect  chout  in  Guzerat,  Malwa,  and 
the  Dekhan,  in  the  name  of  Maharaja  Sahu,  It  was  the 
Peishwa  who  concluded  secret  arrangements  with  the  Moghul 
Viceroys,  under  which  certain  yearly  payments  were  made  to 
the  Mahrattas  on  the  condition  that  they  made  no  attempt 
to  collect  chout  for  themselves,  and  duly  kept  within  a  cer- 
tain line  of  frontier.  The  precise  terms  of  this  agreement 
were  necessarily  kept  in  the  dark;  for  at  this  period  the 
Moghul  court  would  have  refused  to  sanction  any  arrange- 
ment which  implied  the  payment  of  tribute  to  the  Mahrattas. 

The  death  of  Bahadur  Shah  in  1712  was  followed  by  an- 
other fratricidal  war ;  but  the  Moghul  princes  were  men  with- 
out force  of  character,  and  indeed  were  little  better  than  pup- 
pets in  the  hands  of  ambitious  generals.  After  the  usual 
round  of  treachery  and  carnage,  a  debauched  young  prince, 
named  Jehandar  Shah,  was  placed  upon  the  throne  at  Delhi ; 
but  all  real  power  was  exercised  by  Zulfikar  Khan,  the  Moghul 
general,  who  had  been  Viceroy  of  the  Dekhan  in  the  reign 
of  Aurangzeb,  and  who  had  defeated  and  slain  the  youngest 
son  of  Aurangzeb  at  the  accession  of  Bahadur  Shah. 

Jehandar  Shah  was  a  drunkard,  who  chose  his  favorites 
from  the  dregs  of  society.  Zulfikar  Khan  was  a  respectable 
grandee,  who  sought  to  wield  the  destinies  of  the  empire 
under  the  name  of  prime  minister.  There  naturally  fol- 


246  HISTORY   OF    INDIA 

lowed  a  struggle  for  power  between  the  besotted  Padishah 
and  the  ambitious  minister.  But  the  reign  was  too  scan- 
dalous to  last.  The  vices  of  Jehandar  Shah  were  not  con- 
fined to  the  recesses  of  the  zenana,  but  were  paraded  before 
the  lower  orders,  and  became  the  common  talk  of  the  bazars. 
Suddenly  his  headlong  career  was  arrested  by  the  news  of 
a  dangerous  rebellion  in  Bengal. 

A  young  prince  named  Farrukh  Siyar,  a  grandson  of 
Bahadur  Shah,  had  been  left  in  Bengal  during  the  fratri- 
cidal war  which  followed  the  death  of  Aurangzeb.  By 
strange  good  fortune  Farrukh  Siyar  had  escaped  the  mas- 
sacre of  princes  which  accompanied  the  rise  of  Jehandar 
Shah;  but  still  he  was  in  constant  peril  of  his  life,  and  was 
thus  prepared  for  any  desperate  measure.  When  the  reign 
of  Jehandar  Shah  became  a  scandal  to  the  empire,  the  minds 
of  men  began  to  turn  toward  Farrukh  Siyar.  Two  Moghul 
brothers,  known  as  the  two  Saiyids,  or  descendants  of  the 
prophet,  resolved  to  head  a  righteous  rebellion  in  the  name 
of  Farrukh  Siyar;  to  depose  the  debauched  sovereign  who 
disgraced  the  empire,  and  to  place  Farrukh  Siyar  on  the 
throne  of  Delhi,  and  govern  the  empire  in  his  name. 

The  two  Saiyids  were  men  of  some  standing.  One  was 
the  governor  of  Patna,  and  the  other  was  governor  of  Alla- 
habad. By  their  help,  a  force  was  collected,  and  the  two 
Saiyids  began  to  march  to  Delhi  accompanied  by  Farrukh 
Siyar.  Numbers  joined  them  on  the  way.  Zulfikar  Khan 
took  the  field  and  advanced  toward  Agra,  accompanied  by 
Jehandar  Shah;  but  the  young  Padishah  was  an  arrant 
coward,  and  fled  back  to  Delhi,  leaving  the  imperial  forces 
to  be  defeated  in  the  neighborhood  of  Agra.  The  cause  of 
Farrukh  Siyar  triumphed;  and  the  two  Saiyids  conducted 
him  to  Delhi  amid  the  acclamations  of  the  multitude. 

Zulfikar  Khan  tendered  his  submission  to  the  two  Saiyids, 
and  was  received  with  every  mark  of  favor,  but  was  treach- 
erously assassinated  on  leaving  the  tent.  Jehandar  Shah 
was  put  to  death,  as  well  as  many  others  who  were  likely 
to  interfere  with  the  accession  of  Farrukh  Siyar.  The  new 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  247 

Padishah  then  ascended  the  throne  of  Delhi  amid  the  firing 
of  cannon  and  thunder  of  kettle-drums,  and  was  at  once  ac- 
cepted by  all  parties  as  sovereign  of  the  Moghul  empire. 

Farrukh  Siyar  reigned  from  1713  to  1719.  From  the  first 
he  engaged  in  a  series  of  intrigues  for  throwing  off  the  yoke 
of  the  two  Saiyids,  and  ruling  the  empire  as  irresponsible 
sovereign  without  check  or  hindrance.  The  elder  Saiyid, 
Abdulla  Khan,  filled  the  post  of  minister  at  Delhi.  The 
younger  Saiyid,  Husain  Ali  Khan,  was  sent  to  restore  the 
Moghul  supremacy  in  Rajputana,  which  had  been  in  a  dis- 
affected state  ever  since  the  death  of  Aurangzeb.  At  the 
same  time  it  was  hoped  that  by  separating  the  two  brothers, 
by  keeping  the  one  at  Delhi  and  sending  the  other  to  Raj- 
putana, it  might  be  possible  to  effect  their  destruction. 

The  Moghul  court  had  always  been  pre-eminent  for  craft 
and  treachery;  but  during  the  struggles  between  Farrukh 
Siyar  and  the  two  Saiyids,  there  was  an  utter  absence  of 
scruple  or  shame.  Rajputana  had  been  virtually  independ- 
ent ever  since  the  death  of  Aurangzeb.  Even  the  border 
territory  of  Jaipur,  which  intervened  between  the  Moghul' s 
territories  and  the  more  remote  kingdoms  of  Udaipur  and 
Marwar,  had  thrown  off  the  Muhammadan  yoke,  and  repu- 
diated all  connection  with  the  Moghul  court  at  Delhi.  A 
Rajput  prince,  a  kinsman  of  the  old  royal  house,  ascended 
the  throne  as  Raja  of  Jaipur,  and  was  prepared  to  set  the 
Moghul  suzerainty  at  defiance  so  long  as  the  Moghul  armies 
refrained  from  invading  his  territories. 

In  the  first  instance  Husain  Ali  Khan  was  sent  to  reduce 
the  Raja  of  Jaipur  to  obedience.  Meanwhile  secret  letters 
were  sent  by  the  Padishah  to  the  Raja,  encouraging  him  to 
hold  out  against  the  Moghul  troops,  and  instigating  him  to 
do  his  utmost  to  effect  the  destruction  of  Husain  Ali  Khan. 
The  Jaipur  Raja  was  bewildered  by  these  contradictory  pro- 
ceedings, but  was  at  last  reduced  to  submission,  and  induced 
to  give  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  Farrukh  Siyar. 

Husain  Ali  Khan  discovered  the  treachery  which  had 
been  practiced  upon  him  as  regards  the  Jaipur  Raja,  but 


248  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

deemed  it  expedient  to  become  reconciled  to  Farrukh  Siyar. 
It  is  said  that  this  reconciliation  was  brought  about  by  the 
mother  of  Farrukh  Siyar;  but  it  would  be  sheer  waste  of 
time  to  inquire  too  closely  into  the  intrigues  which  were  at 
work  in  the  Moghul  court.  Soon  afterward  Husain  Ali  Khan 
encountered  still  more  flagrant  treachery.  In  order  to  keep 
him  at  a  distance  from  his  elder  brother,  he  was  appointed 
Viceroy  of  the  Dekhan,  and  ordered  to  proceed  to  his  new 
government.  At  this  time  Daud  Khan,  the  same  man  who 
besieged  Governor  Pitt  at  Madras,  was  Viceroy  of  Guzerat. 
Daud  Khan  was  openly  instructed,  by  letters  from  the  min- 
ister Abdulla  Khan,  to  meet  Husain  Ali  Khan  on  his  way 
to  the  Dekhan,  and  pay  implicit  obedience  to  his  orders.  At 
the  same  time  Daud  Khan  was  secretly  told,  by  private  let- 
ters from  Farrukh  Siyar,  that  if  he  could  effect  the  destruc- 
tion of  Husain  Ali  Khan,  he  would  receive  the  viceroyalty 
of  the  Dekhan  as  his  reward.  The  result  was  that  Daud 
Khan  strengthened  his  army  by  enlisting  a  force  of  Mahrat- 
tas.  "When  Husain  Ali  Khan  came  up,  instead  of  a  friendly 
greeting  there  was  an  obstinate  battle.  The  Mahrattas  did 
nothing,  but  scoured  about  the  plain  on  horseback,  and  kept 
aloof  from  the  fighting  until  the  action  was  over.  Mean- 
while Daud  Khan  would  have  gained  the  victory,  but  in  the 
moment  of  triumph  he  was  shot  dead  by  a  musket-ball.  His 
Mahrattas  at  once  went  over  to  the  army  of  Husain  Ali  Khan, 
tendered  then*  submission,  and  then  began  to  plunder  the 
camp  of  Daud  Khan. 

A  few  glimpses  of  Delhi  at  this  period  are  to  be  derived 
from  the  correspondence  of  an  English  mission  which  was 
sent  from  Calcutta  to  Delhi  in  1715,  and  remained  more  than 
two  years  at  the  Moghul  capital.  The  mission  was  under- 
taken to  secure  certain  trading  privileges  from  the  Great 
Moghul,  and  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  delays  and  eva- 
sions of  ministers  and  courtiers.  The  presents  sent  by  the 
English  merchants  at  Calcutta  were  received  with  great 
favor  by  the  Padishah  and  the  leading  grandees ;  and  the 
English  ambassadors  received  so  many  promises  of  goodwill 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  249 

and  patronage  that  they  wrote  cheerful  letters  to  Calcutta, 
saying  that  they  were  sanguine  of  obtaining  ah1  they  wanted. 
When,  however,  they  began  to  ask  for  firmans  setting  forth 
the  privileges  to  be  granted,  so  many  difficulties  were  raised 
on  all  sides  that  they  began  to  despair  of  obtaining  any 
firmans  at  all. 

Meanwhile,  an  English  surgeon  named  Hamilton,  who 
accompanied  the  mission  to  Delhi,  had  been  fortunate  enough 
to  heal  Farrukh  Siyar  of  a  troublesome  disease ;  and  the  Pa- 
dishah was  willing  to  show  his  gratitude  by  granting  a  firman 
of  privileges.  But  Farrukh  Siyar  refused  to  part  with  the 
doctor;  and  the  doctor  was  thrown  into  a  painful  fright;  for 
he  had  a  wife  and  family  in  England,  and  was  horrified  at 
the  idea  of  spending  the  rest  of  his  days  in  gilded  exile  at 
Delhi. 

Suddenly,  after  a  delay  of  two  years,  all  difficulties  were 
removed.  The  English  had  found  it  convenient  to  remove 
their  old  factory  at  Surat  to  their  more  important  settlement 
at  Bombay.  This  trifling  event  spread  a  terror  through  the 
Moghul  court.  The  older  grandees  remembered  that  the  fac- 
tory at  Surat  had  been  removed  to  Bombay  just  before  the 
disastrous  war  of  1686 ;  and  they  were  in  mortal  fear  lest 
the  repetition  of  the  measure  should  be  followed  by  the  re- 
appearance of  English  men-of-war  in  the  eastern  seas.  The 
requests  of  the  English  ambassadors  were  granted  with  sur- 
prising promptitude ;  even  the  English  doctor  was  permitted 
to  depart  after  pledging  himself  to  return  with  a  supply  of 
medicines  at  an  early  date;1  and  the  mission  returned  to 
Calcutta  with  firmans  of  new  rights  and  privileges  duly 
signed  and  sealed. 

The  English  mission  were  impressed  with  the  pomp  and 
power  of  the  Great  Moghul,  but  they  saw  many  signs  of  dis- 
turbance at  Delhi.  The  marriage  of  Farrukh  Siyar  with 
the  Jaipur  princess  was  celebrated  with  illuminations  and 


1  Dr.  Hamilton  died  shortly  after  his  return  to  Calcutta.     His  tombstone  is 
still  to  be  seen  inscribed  with  a  record  of  his  services. 


250  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

fireworks;  but  the  plots  for  securing  the  destruction  of 
Husain  Ali  Khan  were  widely  known.  About  the  same 
time  a  Tartar  army  broke  out  in  mutiny,  and  the  troops 
were  clamoring  for  their  arrears  of  pay  in  the  streets  of 
Delhi. 

Meanwhile  the  Sikhs  were  signally  defeated  in  the  Pun- 
jab, and  Bandu  Guru  was  taken  prisoner  and  conducted  to 
Delhi  amid  a  horrible  procession  of  eight  hundred  Sikh 
prisoners  doomed  to  death,  and  two  thousand  bleeding 
heads  borne  on  poles.  The  executions  that  followed  were 
ghastly  and  sickening.  The  Sikh  prisoners  were  beheaded 
at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  a  day.  The  captive  Guru  was 
clothed  in  mock  robes  of  state  and  exhibited  with  an  infant 
son  in  an  iron  cage.  The  child  was  butchered  before  his 
eyes,  and  he  himself  was  tortured  to  death  with  hot  pincers. 
But  Bandu  Guru  perished  in  the  glory  of  martyrdom,  exult- 
ing in  the  dream  that  he  had  been  raised  up  by  God  to  scourge 
the  sins  and  oppressions  of  the  age. 

In  1719,  about  a  year  after  the  English  mission  left  Delhi, 
the  reign  of  Farrukh  Siyar  was  brought  to  a  tragical  close. 
Abdulla  Khan,  the  minister,  found  that  his  life  was  in  dan- 
ger, and  summoned  his  brother  from  the  Dekhan.  Husain 
Ali  Khan  marched  to  Delhi  with  an  army  of  Mahrattas,  and 
excited  a  universal  terror.  Then  followed  a  night  of  horror. 
The  army  of  Abdulla  Khan  surrounded  the  palace,  while  the 
Mahrattas  were  supposed  to  keep  order  in  the  city.  The  most 
alarming  reports  spread  through  Delhi.  It  was  said  that  Ab- 
dulla Khan  had  been  murdered  in  the  palace  by  the  Raja  of 
Jaipur.  Next  it  was  rumored  that  the  Mahrattas  were  plun- 
dering the  city ;  and  the  mob  of  Delhi  rose  against  the  Mah- 
rattas, and  slaughtered  large  numbers,  and  found  so  much 
gold  in  their  saddle-bags  as  to  increase  the  general  alarm. 

Next  morning  the  uproar  was  over.  The  trembling  Pa- 
dishah had  been  dragged  from  the  zenana  amid  the  screams 
of  women,  and  thrown  into  a  dungeon  and  deprived  of  eye- 
sight; and  it  was  soon  known  that  he  had  been  strangled  to 
death  by  the  bowstring.  Meanwhile,  an  infant  prince  was 


MUHAMMAD  AN    INDIA  251 

taken  out  of  the  state  prison  of  Selimghur,  which  adjoined 
the  palace,  and  placed  upon  the  throne  of  the  Moghuls.  The 
firing  of  cannon  and  thundering  of  the  imperial  kettle-drums 
at  the  gate  of  the  palace  announced  that  Farrukh  Siyar  had 
ceased  to  reign,  and  that  another  Padishah  was  sovereign  of 
the  Moghul  empire. 

It  soon  transpired  that  the  two  Saiyids  had  assumed  the 
supreme  direction  of  affairs  in  the  name  of  an  infant  sover- 
eign. Three  months  afterward  the  infant  died,  and  another 
young  boy  was  taken  out  of  the  state  prison  and  set  upon  the 
throne.  But  the  reign  of  the  new  puppet  was  shorter  than 
that  of  his  ill-starred  predecessor.  In  a  few  weeks  he  too 
was  hurried  to  the  grave  by  some  insidious  disease. 

A  healthier  youth  was  now  taken  out  of  the  prison,  and 
enthroned  under  the  name  of  Muhammad  Shah.  He  .was 
destined  to  reign  for  a  period  of  nearly  thirty  years ;  to  wit- 
ness the  mortal  blow  from  Persia  which  shook  the  Moghul 
empire  to  its  foundations;  and  to  leave  his  successors  to  be 
the  alternate  prey  of  Afghans  and  Mahrattas. 

Muhammad  Shah  ascended  the  throne  as  the  puppet  of 
the  two  Saiyids ;  but  by  this  time  a  strong  party  had  been 
formed  against  the  brothers.  The  succession  of  three  pag- 
eant Padishahs  within  a  few  brief  months  had  opened  the 
eyes  of  the  leading  grandees  to  the  dangerous  ambition  of 
the  Saiyids,  and  raised  up  a  host  of  enemies  who  were  re- 
solved on  their  downfall. 

The  two  brothers  were  aware  of  the  secret  combinations 
formed  against  them,  and  labored  hard  to  defeat  their  de- 
signs. Abdulla  Khan  remained  at  Delhi  to  carry  on  the 
duties  of  prime  minister.  Husain  Ali  Khan  returned  to  his 
viceroyalty  in  the  Dekhan,  and  carried  the  young  Padishah 
with  him  as  a  precautionary  measure.  But  there  was  treach- 
ery in  the  camp,  and  a  savage  Kalmuk  agreed  to  strike  the 
fatal  blow.  He  presented  a  petition  to  Husain  Ali  Khan, 
and  while  the  latter  was  reading  it  the  Kalmuk  stabbed  the 
Viceroy  to  the  heart.  The  dead  body  rolled  out  of  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  palanquin.  The  Kalmuk  was  cut  to  pieces 


252  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

by  the  Viceroy's  guards.  But  Muhammad  Shah  placed  him- 
self at  the  head  of  his  friends,  and  his  appearance  put  an 
end  to  the  confusion  and  restored  order.  The  army  returned 
to  Agra,  and  thence  began  the  march  to  Delhi.  Abdulla 
Khan  marched  out  an  army  to  revenge  the  death  of  his 
brother,  but  found  it  useless  to  contend  against  the  revolu- 
tion. His  forces  were  utterly  defeated ;  his  life  was  spared ; 
but  the  power  of  the  Saiyids  was  gone  forever. 

Muhammad  Shah  entered  Delhi  with  all  the  triumph  of 
a  conqueror.  He  was  received  by  his  mother  and  ladies 
of  the  zenana  with  all  the  pomp  and  ceremonial  that  accom- 
panied the  installation  of  Moghul  sovereigns.  He  took  his 
seat  upon  the  great  throne;  the  imperial  insignia  were  dis- 
played on  either  side;  basins  of  gold  coins  and  jewels  were 
waved  around  him ;  and  to  all  outward  appearance  he  began 
to  reign  with  all  the  magnificence  of  a  Jehangir  or  Shah 
Jehan.  But  the  energies  of  the  imperial  rule  were  already 
in  rapid  decay;  the  life-blood  of  the  empire  was  ebbing  away; 
and  the  blaze  of  splendor  which  heralded  the  elevation  of 
Muhammad  Shah  to  the  sovereignty  was  but  an  empty  show 
to  veil  the  decline  of  the  empire. 

The  signs  of  dissolution  must  have  been  already  evident 
to  those  who  could  see  beneath  the  surface  of  things.  The 
Moghul  court  was  torn  by  factions  which  could  no  longer  be 
suppressed  by  the  frown  of  the  Padishah,  and  which  not 
infrequently  broke  out  in  open  broils.  The  removal  of 
Viceroys  from  one  province  to  another,  which  had  been 
so  frequent  under  the  despotic  rule  of  Jehangir,  Shah  Jehan, 
and  Aurangzeb,  had  become  of  rare  occurrence ;  for  an  order 
for  removal,  under  a  weak  sovereign  like  Farrukh  Siyar  or 
Muhammad  Shah,  might  have  been  met  by  a  formidable 
rebellion  which  would  have  engulfed  the  empire. 

One  sign  of  weakness  was  more  significant  than  all  the 
others.  The  imperial  camp  was  no  longer  to  be  seen  mov- 
ing from  Hindustan  to  the  Punjab,  or  from  Hindustan  to 
the  Dekhan,  keeping  Sikhs  and  Rajputs  in  awe,  and  carry- 
ing the  prestige  of  the  Great  Moghul  to  every  part  of  his 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA.  #53 

dominions.  During  the  reigns  of  Farrukh  Siyar  and  Mu- 
hammad Shah,  the  Padishah  was  little  better  than  a  pageant 
confined  to  the  palace ;  and  his  progresses  in  camp  were  little 
more  than  hunting  expeditions  in  the  immediate  neighbor- 
hood of  Delhi. 

Yet  still  the  administration  moved  on  in  the  well-worn 
grooves  of  long-established  routine,  although  much  of  the 
vitality  of  power  had  passed  away.  No  Viceroy  or  Subahdar 
of  a  province  was  legally  in  possession  of  his  post  until  he 
had  received  letters  and  insignia  of  investiture  from  the  Mo- 
ghul  court  at  Delhi ;  and  this  simple  procedure  preserved  the 
prestige  of  Moghul  suzerainty  for  generations  after  the  au- 
thority of  the  Padishah  had  dwindled  into  an  empty  name. 

During  the  reign  of  Muhammad  Shah  a  Subahdar  might 
die,  and  his  son  might  succeed  to  the  post  by  an  assumption 
of  hereditary  right,  which  would  have  been  ruthlessly  denied 
by  Aurangzeb  or  his  predecessors ;  but  even  during  the  last 
years  of  the  empire  the  succession  had  no  validity  or  weight 
in  the  eyes  of  the  masses  until  the  letters  and  insignia  had 
been  received  from  Delhi.  The  same  might  be  said  of  the 
subordinate  Nawabs  of  outlying  territories.  A  Nawab  might 
be  appointed  by  a  Subahdar,  and  be  succeeded  on  death  by 
his  eldest  son ;  and  it  will  be  seen  hereafter  that  this  was  the 
case  with  the  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic,  under  the  Nizam  or 
Subahdar  of  the  Dekhan ;  but  neither  the  original  appoint- 
ment, nor  the  succession  of  the  son,  could  be  considered  legal 
and  secure  until  letters  and  insignia  had  arrived  from  Delhi 
with  the  seals  of  the  empire.  The  consequence  was  that  a 
Viceroy  never  failed  to  send  presents  and  promises  to  the 
Padishah  and  grandees,  to  secure  the  recognized  succession 
of  a  son  or  near  kinsman ;  and  whenever  a  Viceroy  died 
every  candidate  for  the  government  was  equally  profuse  in 
presents  and  promises  in  the  hope  of  securing  his  own  recog- 
nition to  the  exclusion  of  all  others. 

All  this  while  the  Padishah  was  still  the  sole  fountain  of 
all  honor,  rank,  and  titles  throughout  the  empire.  These 
rewards  were  so  largely  coveted  that  grandees  were  often 


254  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

ready  to  sacrifice  the  greater  part  of  their  wealth  in  order 
to  obtain  them.  They  were  never  hereditary,  but  they  ele- 
vated the  grandee  for  the  time  being  above  his  fellows  in  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  court,  and  were  thus  always  received  with 
the  utmost  pride  and  gladness  of  heart.  Many  a  Subahdar 
or  Nawab,  driven  to  the  verge  of  rebellion  by  insult  or  neg- 
lect, has  been  brought  once  again  within  the  pale  of  loyalty 
and  devotion  by  the  receipt  of  an  empty  title  and  a  dress  of 
honor  from  the  Great  Moghul. 

A  curious  anomaly  of  the  Moghul  constitution  was  the 
appointment  of  a  Dewan,  or  financial  accountant-general, 
to  every  province  of  the  empire.  It  was  the  duty  of  this 
officer  to  receive  all  collections  of  revenue,  to  pay  all  salaries, 
including  that  of  the  Subahdar  or  Nawab,  and  to  devote  his 
whole  attention  to  the  remission  of  the  largest  possible  yearly 
balance  to  the  imperial  treasury  at  Delhi.  In  the  reign  of 
Aurangzeb  the  Dewan  had  been  regarded  as  the  most  im- 
portant officer  in  the  province.  The  duties  of  the  Subahdar 
or  Nawab  had  been  confined  to  the  maintenance  of  the  public 
peace  and  the  administration  of  justice;  and  all  revenue  ques- 
tions had  been  left  to  the  Dewan.  At  the  same  time  the 
Dewan  received  his  appointment  direct  from  the  Padishah, 
and  was  altogether  independent  of  the  Subahdar  or  Nawab ; 
and  by  his  zeal  in  the  collection  of  revenue,  and  remission  of 
the  largest  possible  amount  as  the  Padishah's  share,  he  might 
hope  for  promotion  or  reward. 

During  the  decline  of  the  Moghul  empire,  the  greediness 
for  rank  and  titles  led  to  a  general  corruption  in  the  court 
and  provinces.  The  grandees  grew  rich  while  the  imperial 
revenues  dwindled  year  by  year.  Presents  to  the  ministers, 
courtiers,  and  chief  ladies  of  the  zenana  became  of  more  im- 
portance than  the  remittance  of  the  yearly  revenue  to  the 
imperial  treasury.  There  were  collusions  between  the  Su- 
bahdar and  the  Dewan,  and  by  dint  of  bribes  and  presents 
the  two  appointments  were  sometimes  given  to  two  different 
members  of  the  same  family,  and  sometimes  were  doubled 
up  in  the  same  officer.  The  result  was  a  growing  independ- 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  255 

ence  among  the  Subahdars  and  Nawabs  of  provinces;  a 
growing  tendency  on  the  part  of  those  officers  to  retain 
their  several  governments  as  the  hereditary  right  of  their 
respective  families;  a  growing  disregard  to  the  orders  re- 
ceived from  the  court  at  Delhi,  and  a  determination  to  gov- 
ern their  respective  provinces  according  to  their  own  irre- 
sponsible will. 

Strange  to  say,  while  there  was  a  general  loosening  of 
the  tie  which  bound  the  Viceroys  of  provinces  to  the  Mo-r 
ghul  court,  the  tie  itself  was  on  all  occasions  ostentatiously 
displayed  before  the  multitude.  Every  Viceroy  of  a  prov- 
ince acted  as  though  he  believed  that  his  authority  derived 
its  sole  lustre  and  security  from  its  subordination  to  that  of 
the  Great  Moghul.  Whenever  the  imperial  firmans,  orders, 
or  letters  of  any  description  arrived  from  Delhi,  the  Subahdar 
or  Nawab  went  out  with  all  his  officers  in  grand  array  to 
receive  the  documents  with  every  demonstration  of  respect 
and  honor;  to  place  the  imperial  commands  upon  his  fore- 
head in  token  of  his  profound  submission  to  the  will  of  the 
Padishah ;  and  to  announce  the  coming  of  the  imperial  mes- 
sengers with  a  salute  of  artillery,  and  every  mark  of  devotion 
and  loyalty. 

The  richest  province  of  the  empire,  or  that  which  sent 
the  largest  yearly  revenue  to  the  Padishah,  was  the  one 
which  included  the  outlying  territories  of  Bengal,  Behar, 
and  Orissa.  But  the  Nawabs  of  the  Bengal  provinces 
played  no  part  hi  the  history  of  the  empire.  They  lived 
to  the  eastward  of  the  river  Carumnasa,  and  had  little  or 
no  concern  with  the  Moghul  court,  beyond  remitting  the 
yearly  revenue  to  Delhi. 

The  two  most  important  officers  in  the  empire  were 
Saadut  Ali  Khan,  who  was  Subahdar  of  Oude;  and  Chin 
Kulich  Khan,  better  known  by  his  title  of  Nizam-ul-mulk, 
who  was  Subahdar  or  Nizam  of  the  Dekhan.1  The  history 

1  Chin  Kulich  Khan  subsequently  received  the  honorary  title  of  Asof  Jah, 
which,  according  to  Muhammadan  tradition,  was  the  name  of  the  minister  of 
Solomon.  But  though  he  is  often  called  Asof  Jah  he  is  best  known  by  the  title 


256  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

of  these  two  men  is  typical  of  the  condition  of  the  Moghul 
empire  during  the  reign  of  Muhammad  Shah,  and  thus  de- 
mands separate  consideration. 

The  province  of  Oude  in  those  times  included  not  only 
modern  Oude,  but  the  vast  area  of  fertile  territory  extending 
from  Benares  to  Agra,  which  is  comprised  in  the  present  day 
under  the  general  term  of  Northwest  Provinces.  Saadut  Ali 
Khan  was  a  Persian  and  a  Shiah.  He  was  of  low  extrac- 
tion, having  been  originally  a  cotton  merchant  of  Khorasan ; 
but  by  a  strange  destiny  he  had  become  Viceroy  and  prac- 
tically sovereign  over  the  greater  part'  of  Hindustan,  and 
was  the  ancestor  of  the  later  kings  of  Oude,  who  like  him 
professed  the  religion  of  the  Shiahs. 

Nizam-ul-mulk  was  a  rival  in  race  and  religion,  a  Turk 
and  a  Sunni.  He  belonged  to  what  was  called  a  Turanian 
family,  as  distinguished  from  the  Iranian,  or  Persian  stock. 
His  early  history  is  obscure,  but  he  and  his  father  before 
him  are  said  to  have  held  important  commands  in  the  reign 
of  Aurangzeb. 

During  the  scandalous  reign  of  Jehandar  Shah,  the  proud 
spirit  of  Nizam-ul-mulk  had  nearly  worked  his  own  down- 
fall. While  proceeding  through  the  streets  of  Delhi,  his  way 
was  impeded  by  one  of  the  worthless  parasites  of  the  hour; 
a  woman  who  had  formerly  sold  fruit  and  garden  stuff  in 
the  vegetable  market,  but  had  become  the  sworn  friend  of  a 
dancing-girl  who  was  the  ruling  favorite  of  Jehandar  Shah. 
This  woman  was  proceeding  to  the  palace  on  an  elephant, 
accompanied  by  a  numerous  retinue ;  and  as  she  passed  she 
poured  out  a  torrent  of  abuse  on  Nizam-ul-mulk.  It  is  said 
that  the  proud  Turk  gave  a  signal  to  his  retainers;  but 
whether  he  did  or  no,  the  men  dragged  the  woman  from 
her  elephant  and  maltreated  her  in  the  presence  of  the  mob. 
The  woman  threw  ashes  on  her  head,  and  hurried  off  to  the 
palace  to  demand  vengeance  from  the  favorite  dancing-girl. 

of  Nizam-ul-mulk,  or  "regulator  of  the  state,"  given  to  him  on  the  accession  of 
Farrukh  Siyar ;  and  as  his  successors,  the  Nizams  of  Hyderabad,  are  named  after 
this  title,  it  will  be  preserved  throughout  the  present  volumes. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  257 

Meanwhile  Nizam- ul-mulk  went  to  the  house  of  the  prime 
minister  Zulfikar  Khan,  and  told  him  the  whole  story.  The 
two  men  were  not  friends,  but  Zulfikar  Khan  saw  the  neces- 
sity for  supporting  his  fellow-grandee  against  the  insolence 
of  the  favorite.  Accordingly  he  wrote  on  a  slip  of  paper,  "I 
throw  in  my  lot  with  that  of  Nizam-ul-mulk" ;  and  sent  the 
writing  to  Jehandar  Shah.  The  paper  proved  to  be  a  suffi- 
cient warning  for  the  young  Padishah;  he  saw  that  revenge 
was  out  of  the  question,  and  nothing  more  was  heard  of  the 
matter. 

At  the  accession  of  Farrukh  Siyar,  the  two  Saiyids  made 
much  of  Nizam-ul-mulk,  gave  him  the  title  and  appointed 
him  Subahdar  of  the  Dekhan.  Subsequently  they  grew 
jealous  of  him  and  transferred  him  to  the  government  of 
Malwa  between  the  Chambal  and  Nerbudda,  while  Husain 
Ali  Khan  was  appointed  Subahdar  of  the  Dekhan  between 
the  Nerbudda  and  Kistna. 

After  the  assassination  of  Husain  Ali  Khan,  Nizam-ul- 
mulk  crossed  the  Nerbudda  with  an  army,  and  took  posses- 
sion of  the  government  of  the  Dekhan,  defeating  every  com- 
mander who  was  secretly  sent  to  overthrow  him,  while  still 
retaining  a  paramount  influence  in  Malwa  and  Guzerat. 

All  this  while  the  Mahrattas  were  the  pest  of  the  empire, 
the  horror  of  the  Moghul  court,  the  terror  of  the  Moghul 
Viceroys  of  provinces,  and  the  especial  enemies  of  Nizam- 
ul-mulk.  The  first  Peishwa,  Balaji  Visvanath,  died  in  1720, 
and  was  succeeded  in  the  post  of  minister  by  his  son  Baji 
Rao,  who  is  always  described  as  the  ablest  Mahratta  Brah- 
man of  the  time. '  The  policy  of  both  father  and  son  was  to 
secure  the  continued  recognition  of  Maharaja  Sahu  as  the 
vassal  of  the  Great  Moghul ;  to  enforce  the  Mahratta  claims 
to  chout  throughout  the  Dekhan,  Malwa,  and  Guzerat;  and 
to  keep  the  loose  bands  of  Mahratta  horsemen,  which  might 
prove  dangerous  to  the  Brahman  government  at  Satara, 
continually  employed  at  a  distance  from  the  capital.  These 

1  Compare  ante,  p.  244. 


258  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

ends  both  Peishwas  in  turn  had  sought  to  attain  by  issuing 
commissions  to  different  Mahratta  leaders  to  collect  chout  in 
all  directions  in  the  name  of  Maharaja  Sahu. 

The  policy  of  the  Peishwas  throws  much  light  upon  the 
political  genius  of  the  Mahratta  Brahmans.  They  did  not 
care  to  create  a  Mahratta  empire  with  well-defined  frontiers. 
They  preferred  exercising  the  right  of  interference  over  a 
large  and  undefined  part  of  the  Moghul  empire,  and  collect- 
ing chout  under  the  plea  of  affording  protection  and  security 
in  return. 

The  Peishwa  parcelled  out  the  right  of  collecting  chout 
among  different  military  leaders  in  every  district,  in  such  a 
way  that,  while  each  leader  had  an  interest  in  increasing 
the  contributions  to  the  general  stock,  no  one  had  a  compact 
property  to  render  him  independent  of  the  Brahman  court  at 
Satara.  Moreover,  by  dividing  the  revenue  into  innumer- 
able fractions,  it  threw  the  military  leaders  into  the  hands 
of  Brahman  accountants;  and  thus  strengthened  the  power 
of  the  Peishwa  by  increasing  the  influence  of  the  caste  of 
Mahratta  Brahmans  to  which  he  belonged. 

Mahratta  history  has  thus  an  importance  which  has  never 
been  recognized  by  historians.  It  illustrates  the  struggle  for 
political  power  between  the  caste  of  priests  and  that  of  sol- 
diers which  is  the  life  and  soul  of  ancient  history.  Glimpses 
of  this  struggle  are  furnished  by  the  annals  of  Hebrews  and 
Egyptians,  but  they  are  obscure  and  blurred.  Mahratta 
history  reveals  every  secret  working  in  the  battle  between 
intellect  and  brute  force,  which  ended  in  the  triumph  of  the 
Brahman.  In  like  manner  the  after  history  will  tell  of  the 
revolt  of  the  military  leaders  against  the  Brahman  ascen- 
dency, until  the  power  of  the  Peishwas  was  reduced  to  a 
pageant  by  Lord  Wellesley. 

It  was  during  this  early  period  of  the  Brahman  ascen- 
dency that  the  Mahratta  commanders,  mostly  men  of  low 
caste,  began  to  rise  to  the  rank  of  predatory  powers.  The 
family  of  the  Gaekwar  of  Baroda  came  to  the  front  in 
Guzerat;  the  families  of  Sindia  and  Holkar  established  a 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  259 

hold  in  Malwa;  and  the  Bhonsla  family,  the  same  clan  to 
which  Sivaji  belonged,  established  a  dominion  in  Berar  in 
the  Dekhan  to  the  northward  of  the  dominions  of  the  Nizam. 

But  during  the  supremacy  of  the  Brahman  Peishwas 
these  leaders  were  little  more  than  military  puppets  in  the 
hands  of  the  central  power  at  Satara;  they  were  in  fact 
officers  of  the  Peishwa,  commanding  divisions  of  his  troops, 
and  acting  under  his  commission.  It  was  not  until  many^ 
years  afterward,  when  the  power  of  the  Peishwa  was  on  the 
wane,  that  these  military  leaders  ventured  to  exercise  politi- 
cal influence  and  authority  as  semi-independent  princes  of 
the  Mahratta  empire. 

The  dealings  of  an  astute  Mahratta  Brahman,  like  Baji 
Rao,  with  Nizam-ul-mulk,  and  Muhammad  Shah,  are  too 
obscure  and  complicated  to  be  dealt  with  except  in  the  most 
general  terms.  Baji  Rao  was  ever  ready  to  take  advantage 
of  the  jealousies  and  rivalries  in  the  Moghul  empire  to  further 
his  own  political  schemes  for  power  and  aggrandizement. 
He  saw  the  jealous  antagonism  between  the  Padishah  and 
Nizam-ul-mulk,  and  labored  hard  to  profit  by  it.  He  helped 
the  imperial  forces  to  drive  the  power  and  influence  of 
Nizam-ul-mulk  out  of  Guzerat  and  Malwa;  and  in  return 
he  obtained  from  the  Moghul  court  a  grant  of  chout  for  the 
whole  of  the  Dekhan.  He  carried  on  a  series  of  desultory 
wars  against  Nizam-ul-mulk,  until  he  forced  him  into  a  kind 
of  recognition  of  the  Mahratta  claims.  At  the  same  time 
there  was  some  sort  of  compromise  between  the  two.  Nizam- 
ul-mulk  obtained  better  terms  from  Baji  Rao  by  engaging 
not  to  interfere  in  the  Mahratta  collections  in  Guzerat  and 
Malwa.  All  this  while  Baji  Rao  was  seeking  to  obtain  from 
the  Moghul  court  a  formal  grant  of  the  chout  for  Guzerat 
and  Malwa. 

The  Moghul  court  vainly  attempted  to  resist  these  de- 
mands. Their  unwieldy  masses  of  regular  troops  could 
make  no  impression  on  loose  hands  of  Mahratta  horsemen, 
whose  home  was  in  the  saddle,  and  who  disappeared  from 
the  scene  one  day  only  to  reappear  in  an  unexpected  quarter 


200 

on  the  morrow.  Muhammad  Shah  made  certain  concessions 
to  the  Peishwa,  but  only  with  the  view  of  embroiling  him 
with  other  powers.  He  ceded  to  the  Peishwa  the  right  of 
collecting  chout  from  the  Rajputs;  a  measure  which  cer- 
tainly led  to  endless  predatory  wars  between  Rajputs  and 
Mahrattas  when  both  ought  to  have  been  united  in  a  strong 
national  confederacy  of  Hindus  against  the  Moghuls.  Mu- 
hammad Shah  also  made  some  additions  to  the  Mahratta 
claims  on  the  territories  of  Nizam-ul-mulk.  This  last  meas- 
ure recalled  the  Nizam  to  a  sense  of  his  dependence  on  the 
Padishah.  Henceforth  he  seems  to  have  resolved  on  sup- 
porting the  Padishah  against  the  Mahrattas.  At  the  same 
time  Baji  Rao  resolved  on  marching  a  Mahratta  army  to- 
ward Delhi,  and  driving  Muhammad  Shah  into  making  a 
formal  grant  of  chout  for  Guzerat  and  Malwa. 

Such  was  the  general  progress  of  affairs  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign  of  Muhammad  Shah  in  1719  down  to  the 
year  1736.  In  the  latter  year  Baji  Rao  advanced  a  Mahratta 
army  toward  Agra;  while  his  light  troops,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Mulhar  Rao  Holkar,  began  to  ravage  the  surround- 
ing country  beyond  the  Jumna.  Suddenly  Holkar  was  at- 
tacked and  driven  back  by  a  force  under  Saadut  AH  Khan, 
Subahdar  of  Oude.  This  check  was  magnified  into  a  great 
victory;  but  Baji  Rao  retrieved  his  disgrace  by  appearing 
with  a  Mahratta  army  at  the  very  gates  of  Delhi. 

This  movement  of  Baji  Rao  took  place  in  the  beginning 
of  1737,  and  threw  the  Moghul  capital  into  the  utmost  con- 
sternation. But  the  object  of  Baji  Rao  was  not  to  provoke, 
but  to  intimidate  the  Padishah.  He  made  no  attempt  to 
enter  Delhi,  and  he  tried  to  prevent  his  troops  from  devas- 
tating the  suburbs.  Meanwhile  Saadut  Ali  Khan  joined  his 
forces  to  the  imperial  army ;  and  Baji  Rao  deemed  it  expe- 
dient to  return  to  the  Dekhan.  During  this  retreat  of  the 
Mahrattas,  Nizam-ul-mulk  marched  an  army  to  Delhi,  and 
was  received  at  the  capital  with  every  mark  of  favor. 

These  movements  of  rival  armies  become  intelligible  by 
bearing  in  mind  the  secret  relations  between  the  Moghul 


.MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  261 

court  and  the  Peishwa.  The  Moghul  court  was  playing  off 
the  Mahrattas  as  a  check  upon  the  growing  and  dangerous 
power  of  Saadut  Ali  Khan  and  Nizam-ul-mulk.  At  the  same 
time  the  Moghul  court  was  in  mortal  fear  of  the  Mahrattas. 
It  shrunk  from  the  ignominy  of  making  a  formal  grant  of 
the  chout  for  Malwa  and  Guzerat ;  but  according  to  current 
reports  it  secretly  paid  chout  for  all  its  own  territories  round 
about  Delhi,  with  the  view  of  keeping  the  Mahrattas  at  a 
distance  from  the  Moghul  capital.  Thus  Baji  Rao  advanced 
to  Agra  and  Delhi  with  the  view  of  securing  the  forma]  grant 
of  chout  for  Malwa  and  Guzerat;  but  he  kept  his  Mahratta 
army  from  plundering  the  surrounding  country  lest  he  should 
thereby  forfeit  his  claim  to  chout  from  the  Delhi  territories. 

In  1738  the  Nizam  was  returning  from  Delhi  to  the  Dek- 
han,  when  he  came  into  collision  with  Baji  Rao  on  the  banks 
of  the  Nerbudda.  There  was  no  actual  battle,  but  the  Mah- 
rattas surrounded  the  Nizam,  cut  off  his  supplies,  and  re- 
duced him  to  sore  distress.  In  this  extremity  Nizam-ul-mulk 
engaged  to  procure  from  the  Padishah  a  cession  of  the  chout 
for  Malwa  and  Guzerat  to  the  Peishwa.  The  Nizam  then 
returned  to  Delhi,  and  Baji  Rao  took  possession  of  Malwa. 
At  this  crisis  political  affairs  were  brought  to  a  standstill  by 
a  sudden  and  unexpected  blow  from  the  side  of  Persia,  which 
shook  the  Moghul  empire  to  its  foundations. 

The  modern  history  of  Persia  begins  with  the  year  1500, 
when  it  was  formed  into  an  independent  kingdom  by  a  dy- 
nasty of  Shiah  fanatics,  known  as  the  Sufi  Shahs.  The  rise 
of  the  Sufi  empire  preceded  that  of  the  Moghul  empire  of 
Hindustan  by  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  its  downfall  pre- 
ceded that  of  the  Moghul  empire  about  the  same  period. 

The  rule  of  the  Shahs  of  Persia  differed  little  from  that 
of  the  Moghul  sovereigns  of  Hindustan.  There  were  no 
fratricidal  wars  at  the  death  of  a  Shah,  but  the  princes  were 
treated  with  greater  cruelty  during  the  lifetime  of  their 
father,  often  kept  in  state  prisons,  and  blinded  or  strangled 
to  prevent  rebellion.  On  the  death  of  a  Shah  a  son  or  a 
grandson  was  taken  out  of  a  prison  and  placed  upon  the 


262  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

throne;  and  all  his  brothers,  and  all  other  possible  rivals, 
were  butchered  wholesale.  Each  Shah  in  succession  seemed 
to  be  more  weak,  more  cruel,  and  more  depraved  than  his 
predecessor ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  the  empire 
could  have  been  kept  together,  threatened  as  it  was  by  the 
Turks  on  the  west,  the  Russians  on  the  north,  and  Afghans 
and  Uzbegs  to  the  eastward. 

The  dynasty  was  at  last  overthrown  by  an  invasion  of 
Afghans.  About  1710  the  Afghans  of  Kandahar  and  Herat 
threw  off  the  Persian  yoke,  and  established  their  independ- 
ence under  a  chieftain  of  their  own  race.  In  1722  the  Af- 
ghans marched  to  Ispahan,  and  besieged  the  city  until  it 
was  starved  into  unconditional  surrender.  Shah  Husain, 
the  last  of  the  Sufi  dynasty,  abdicated  his  throne  in  favor 
of  Mahmud,  the  Afghan  conqueror;  and  for  a  period  of 
eight  years,  from  1722  to  1730,  the  people  of  Persia  were 
subjected  to  the  indescribable  atrocities  and  outrages  of 
Afghan  rule. 

Meanwhile  Shah  Tahmasp,  a  son  of  Shah  Husain,  made 
feeble  efforts  to  recover  his  father's  kingdom.  In  1727  he 
was  joined  by  a  freebooting  chieftain  named  Nadir  Kuli, 
or  Nadir  the  slave.  This  man  was  a  born  general,  endowed 
with  an  instinct  for  creating  armies  and  founding  empires. 
He  waged  such  successful  wars  against  the  Afghans  that, 
by  the  year  1730,  he  had  driven  them  out  of  Persia  and 
placed  Shah  Tahmasp  on  the  throne  of  Ispahan. 

But  Nadir  Kuli  Khan,  as  he  was  now  called,  was  only 
making  a  stepping-stone  of  Shah  Tahmasp.  He  went  off  to 
Khorasan  to  complete  the  subjugation  of  the  Afghans. 
Meanwhile  Shah  Tahmasp  engaged  in  war  against  the 
Turks,  met  with  some  disasters,  and  concluded  a  peace  by 
yielding  up  his  right  to  Armenia,  Erivan,  and  Georgia, 
which  had  long  been  in  the  possession  of  Persia.  Nadir 
Kuli  Khan  affected  the  utmost  indignation  at  this  ignomini- 
ous peace.  He  returned  to  Ispahan,  threw  Shah  Tahmasp 
into  confinement,  and  placed  the  Shah's  infant  son  upon  the 
throne.  He  then  carried  on  a  war  with  Turkey  until  she 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  263 

was  compelled  to  restore  the  disputed  provinces;  and  Russia 
was  also  induced  to  restore  certain  territories  bordering  on 
the  Caspian  which  had  been  seized  by  Peter  the  Great. 
Nadir  Kuli  Khan  was  thus  all-powerful  in  Persia.  In  1736 
the  infant  sovereign  died,  and  Nadir  the  slave  assumed  the 
full  sovereignty  under  the  title  of  Nadir  Shah,  or  Nadir 
the  king. 

In  1737  Nadir  Shah  was  engaged  in  besieging  Kandahar, 
when  he  sent  two  successive  embassies  to  the  Great  Moghul 
at  Delhi.  The  Moghul  court  took  no  notice  of  these  embas- 
sies ,  it  did  not  even  dismiss  them  and  permit  them  to  return 
to  their  master.  Probably  the  haughty  Moghul  was  pre- 
pared to  dispute  the  title  of  Nadir  Shah  to  the  throne  of 
Persia,  and  to  treat  him  as  an  upstart  and  usurper.  The 
result  was  that  Nadir  Shah  captured  Kandahar  and  Kabul, 
and  then  prepared  to  march  an  army  to  Delhi  vid  Peshawar 
and  Lahore. 

.The  Moghul  court  at  this  crisis  was  feeble  to  the  last 
degree.  It  had  been  recently  threatened  by  the  Mahrattas, 
and  it  was  torn  to  pieces  by  the  dissensions  and  jealousies 
of  the  leading  grandees.  There  was  hot  rivalry  between 
Saadut  Ali  Khan  and  Nizam-ul-mulk,  and  one  or  both  were 
at  daggers  drawn  with  Khan-dauran,  the  minister.  Indeed 
it  was  currently  reported  that  both  Saadut  Ali  Khan  and 
Nizam-ul-mulk  had  been  for  some  time  in  secret  correspond- 
ence with  Nadir  Shah,  and  had  invited  him  to  invade  Hin- 
dustan. 

Nadir  Shah  was  certainly  familiar  with  the  progress  of 
affairs  in  India.  He  charged  Muhammad  Shah  with  having 
failed  to  collect  the  Jezya  from  the  unbelieving  Hindus,  and 
with  having  paid  a  fourth  of  his  revenue  to  the  idolatrous 
Mahrattas. 

Nadir  Shah  reached  Peshawar  without  difficulty.  The 
Moghul  court  had  been  accustomed  to  pay  a  yearly  subsidy 
to  the  hill  tribes  for  the  defence  of  the  frontier  passes ;  but 
for  some  years  previously  the  money  had  been  appropriated 
by  the  corrupt  and  unscrupulous  minister.  Consequently 


264  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

the  garrisons  had  been  withdrawn,  and  the  disbanded  troops 
not  only  left  the  passes  open  to  Nadu*  Shah,  but  eagerly  joined 
his  army  in  the  hope  of  sharing  in  the  spoils  of  Hindustan. 
The  Persian  invader  met  with  little  or  no  resistance  on  his 
way  through  the  Punjab.  The  Moghul  Viceroy  of  the  prov- 
ince was  in  communication  with  Nizam-ul-mulk ;  and  he 
deemed  it  more  to  his  interest  to  permit  Nadir  Shah  to  con- 
tinue his  march  than  to  sacrifice  his  troops  and  himself  in 
vain  efforts  to  repel  the  invasion. 

At  last  the  Moghul  court  was  awakened  from  its  lethargy. 
A  large  army  marched  from  Delhi  to  Kurnal,  about  sixty- 
five  miles  to  the  northward,  under  the  joint  command  of 
Nizam-ul-mulk  and  Khan-dauran,  and  accompanied  by  Mu- 
hammad Shah.  Shortly  afterward  the  army  of  Nadir  Shah 
approached  Kurnal,  and  encamped  in  the  neighborhood. 

At  this  crisis  Saadut  Ali  Khan  arrived  at  Delhi  with 
reinforcements,  and  proposed  giving  the  enemy  battle.  But 
the  old  rivalries  were  still  at  work.  Saadut  Ali  Khan  and 
Khan-dauran  went  out  to  engage  the  enemy,  but  Nizam-ul- 
mulk  stood  aloof  and  refused  to  join  in  the  fighting.  The 
Moghul  army  was  utterly  defeated;  Saadut  Ali  Khan  was 
taken  prisoner,  and  Khan-dauran  received  a  mortal  wound. 

Muhammad  Shah  was  now  at  the  mercy  of  Nadir  Shah. 
Nizam-ul-mulk  was  sent  to  offer  terms  to  the  conqueror;  he 
is  said  to  have  agreed  to  pay  two  crores  of  rupees,  or  two 
millions  sterling,  provided  Nadir  Shah  returned  to  Persia 
without  advancing  on  Delhi.  The  terms  were  accepted,  and 
Nizam-ul-mulk  returned  to  the  camp  of  the  Padishah  with 
the  joyful  news,  and  was  rewarded  with  the  coveted  rank 
of  Amir  of  Amirs,  or  chief  of  all  the  Amirs. 

Saadut  Ali  Khan  was  stung  with  jealousy  at  the  honor 
conferred  on  his  rival.  He  told  Nadir  Shah  that  two  crores 
were  only  a  flea-bite  hi  comparison  with  the  treasures  of 
Delhi;  and  he  persuaded  the  invader  to  pursue  his  march 
to  the  Moghul  capital,  by  promising  to  collect  a  subsidy  of 
twenty  crores.  The  offer  was  accepted,  and  Saadut  Ali 
Khan  hastened  back  to  Delhi. 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  265 

I 

Nadir  Shah  set  out  on  his  march  to  Delhi  with  the  ex- 
pectation of  receiving  a  subsidy  of  twenty  millions  sterling. 
He  ordered  Muhammad  Shah  to  go  on  before  him  and  pre- 
pare the  city  and  palace  for  his  reception.  He  received  a 
visit  from  Saadut  Ali  Khan  in  the  suburbs,  but  treated  him 
with  harshness,  and  asked  why  he  had  not  begun  to  collect 
the  subsidy.  Saadut  saw  that  his  ruin  was  at  hand.  He 
left  the  presence  of  Nadir  Shah  in  abject  terror,  swallowed 
a  dose  of  poison,  and  passed  away  from  the  scene. 

Next  day  Nadir  Shah  entered  the  city  of  Delhi  with 
twenty  thousand  men.  All  houses  and  shops  were  closed; 
not  a  soul  appeared  in  the  streets.  Amid  this  portentous 
gloom,  Nadir  Shah  posted  his  troops  in  various  quarters  of 
the  city,  and  proceeded  to  the  palace,  where  he  was  duly 
entertained  by  Muhammad  Shah. 

The  soldiers  of  Nadir  Shah  were  known  as  the  Persian 
army,  but  they  chiefly  consisted  of  Tartars,  Afghans,  and 
Uzbegs;  and  were  naturally  regarded  with  disgust  and 
hatred  by  the  proud  Moghuls.  Nadir  Shah  promulgated 
stringent  orders  that  none  of  the  inhabitants  of  Delhi  should 
be  injured ;  indeed  all  that  he  wanted  was  to  collect  the  sub- 
sidy as  thoroughly  and  rapidly  as  possible,  and  this  could  be 
best  achieved  by  abstaining  from  all  alarms.  But  the  people 
of  Delhi  were  driven  by  terror  and  shame  into  acts  of  mad- 
ness. On  the  day  after  the  entry  of  Nadir  Shah,  being  the 
10th  of  March,  1739,  a  turmoil  arose  in  the  city.  Many  of 
the  strangers  were  cut  down  and  slaughtered.  A  rumor 
spread  through  the  streets  and  bazars  that  Nadir  Shah  had 
been  slain  within  the  palace.  The  mob  arose  in  overwhelm- 
ing force  and  began  to  massacre  the  foreign  soldiery  in  the 
same  way  that  they  had  massacred  the  Mahrattas  some 
twenty  years  before.  The  approach  of  night  increased  the 
uproar.  The  troops  of  Nadir  Shah  retreated  to  their  quar- 
ters in  the  caravanserais  and  houses  of  the  grandees,  and 
stood  under  arms  throughout  the  night,  while  all  stragglers 
were  butchered  by  the  infuriated  multitude. 

At  early  morning  Nadir  Shah  left  the  palace  with  a  strong 
X— 12  INDIA.  VOL.  I. 


266  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

force,  and  began  riding  through  the  streets  of  Delhi.  The 
sight  of  the  dead  bodies  of  his  troops  aroused  his  terrible 
wrath.  At  the  same  moment  he  was  assailed  with  stones, 
arrows,  and  firearms,  from  the  houses,  and  one  of  his  chiefs 
was  slain  by  his  side.  He  determined  on  a  deed  of  ven- 
geance, which  has  no  parallel  in  modern  history.  He  or- 
dered an  indiscriminate  massacre  of  the  inhabitants  without 
regard  to  age  or  sex.  No  city  taken  by  storm  could  have 
presented  greater  horrors.  The  Persian  army,  maddened 
by  the  sight  of  their  bleeding  comrades,  spread  over  the  city 
like  demons,  breaking  open  shops,  houses,  and  palaces, 
slaughtering,  plundering,  burning,  destroying,  and  com- 
mitting every  kind  of  outrage  with  an  unbridled  fury  which 
knew  not  how  to  pity  nor  how  to  spare. 

The  sack  and  carnage  of  Delhi  lasted  from  eight  o'clock 
in  the  morning  until  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  The 
streets  were  filled  with  the  shouts  of  the  brutal  soldiery  and 
the  shrieks  of  their  helpless  victims.  The  atmosphere  was 
reeking  with  the  blood  and  butchery  of  thousands  of  human 
beings.  Houses  were  set  on  fire,  and  numbers  perished  in 
the  flames.  Husbands  killed  their  wives  and  then  murdered 
themselves.  "Women  threw  themselves  into  wells.  Children 
were  slaughtered  without  mercy,  and  infants  were  cut  to 
pieces  at  their  mothers'  breasts. 

All  this  while  Nadir  Shah  sat  in  a  little  mosque  hi  the 
principal  street,  which  is  still  pointed  out  to  modern  travel- 
lers. His  presence  in  his  milder  moods  was  sufficient  to 
strike  beholders  with  awe.  Six  feet  high,  with  swarthy 
countenance,  large  eyes,  and  a  voice  of  thunder,  his  com- 
manding aspect  compelled  all  men  to  bend  before  him.  But 
now  as  he  sat  in  the  mosque,  his  features  were  lighted  up  by 
a  stern  ferocity,  as  if  he  exulted  in  the  greatness  of  his  re- 
venge. Nizam-ul-mulk,  stung  by  remorse,  threw  himself 
at  the  feet  of  the  conqueror,  and  prayed  for  mercy  toward 
the  innocent  inhabitants;  but  he  was  received  with  torrents 
of  abuse  that  must  have  added  to  his  terrors.  Muhammad 
Shah  followed  his  example,  and  begged  that  his  subjects 


MUHAMMADAN    INDIA  207 

might  be  spared  from  further  slaughter.  At  last  the  blood- 
thirsty warrior  began  to  relent;  he  sent  out  orders  that  the 
butchery  should  end,  and  he  was  promptly  and  implicitly 
obeyed.  But  the  sun  set  upon  a  scene  of  horror  and  devasta- 
tion which  has  rarely  been  equalled  in  the  annals  of  Tartar 
revenge. 

Next  morning  the  survivors  were  ordered  under  terrible 
penalties  to  dispose  of  the  dead.  The  corpses  of  Hindus  and 
Muhammadans  were  thrown  promiscuously  together.  Many 
were  buried  in  vast  pits ;  many  were  cast  on  piles  of  timber 
taken  from  the  falling  houses,  and  burned  in  huge  holo- 
causts. The  number  of  slain  can  never  be  known.  Ac- 
cording to  one  wild  estimate,  more  than  a  hundred  thousand 
souls  perished  in  the  massacre;  but  if  the  number  is  reduced 
to  one-fifth  or  one-tenth,  it  is  sufficient  to  strike  men  with 
terror  until  the  end  of  time. 

"When  the  slaughter  was  over  and  the  murdered  heaps 
had  been  cleared  away,  the  work  of  plunder  and  exaction 
was  carried  out  with  relentless  barbarity.  The  peacock 
throne  and  all  the  jewels  of  the  imperial  palace  became  the 
spoil  of  the  conqueror ;  so  did  the  best  of  the  cannon  and 
warlike  stores,  and  the  choicest  of  the  elephants,  horses, 
and  camels.  Contributions  were  levied  from  every  grandee, 
and  from  every  dwelling-house  in  the  capital ;  and  any  show 
of  reluctance  or  attempt  at  concealment  was  met  by  threats 
and  tortures.  Many  who  were  unable  to  meet  the  demand 
committed  suicide  rather  than  fall  into  the  hands  of  their 
tormentors.  A  body  of  Persian  horse  was  sent  to  Oude, 
and  confiscated  the  treasures  of  Saadut  Ali  Khan  to  the 
value  of  one  or  two  millions  sterling.  A  like  sum  was 
demanded  of  Nizam-ul-mulk,  and  a  large  amount  seems 
to  have  been  obtained ;  but  the  treasury  of  the  Dekhan  was 
out  of  the  reach  of  Nadir  Shah;  and  any  force  despatched 
in  that  direction  might  ha^e  been  cut  off  in  the  passes  of  the 
Vindhya  mountains,  or  exposed  to  the  assaults  of  the  Mah- 
rattas.  An  attempt  was  made  to  secure  a  subsidy  from 
Bengal;  but  the  treasury  of  Murshedabad  was  too  remote 


268  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

from  Delhi ;  and  not  even  the  avarice  of  Nadir  Shah  would 
induce  him  to  send  an  army  into  the  defiles  of  Bihar. 

The  total  value  of  the  gold,  silver,  jewels,  weapons,  stuffs, 
stores,  and  money  carried  off  by  Nadir  Shah  has  been  vari- 
ously estimated  at  from  eight  to  eighty  millions ;  but  all  such 
conjectures  are  the  sport  of  the  imagination.  Nothing  is 
known  beyond  the  fact  that  the  invader  carried  off  vast  and 
untold  treasures;  that  he  gave  three  months'  pay  to  every 
soldier  in  his  army,  and  remitted  a  year's  taxation  through- 
out the  whole  Persian  empire. 

Nadu*  Shah  demanded  the  niece  of  Muhammad  Shah  in 
marriage  for  his  second  son.  He  also  demanded  the  cession 
to  Persia  of  all  territories  to  the  westward  of  the  Indus 
which  had  previously  belonged  to  the  Moghul.  Indeed  he 
might  have  made  any  demand  he  thought  proper,  for  Mu- 
hammad Shah  was  far  too  prostrate  to  attempt  any  refusal. 
The  marriage  of  his  son  to  the  Moghul  princess  was  solem- 
nized with  some  show  of  rejoicing;  and  the  cession  of  terri- 
tory was  embodied  in  a  formal  grant,  which  was  couched 
in  terms  of  abject  submission  to  the  will  of  the  conqueror. 

Nadir  Shah  reinstated  the  fallen  Moghul  in  the  possession 
of  his  throne  and  empire.  He  exhorted  every  vassal  and 
feudatory  to  be  loyal  in  their  devotion  to  Muhammad  Shah ; 
and  he  threatened  to  wreak  his  vengeance  on  any  that  should 
attempt  to  rebel.  He  then  returned  to  Persia  after  a  stay  of 
two  months  in  Hindustan. 

Nadir  Shah  never  reappeared  in  India.  He  lived  nine 
years  longer,  during  which  he  was  engaged  in  wars  with 
the  Turks,  or  in  putting  down  rebellions  in  his  own  terri- 
tories. Unfortunately  for  him,  he  interfered  with  the  na- 
tional religion  of  Persia.  He  sought  to  put  an  end  to  the 
antagonism  between  Shiahs  and  Sunnis  by  declaring  the 
Sunni  faith  to  be  the  one  state  religion  of  the  empire.  He 
thus  raised  a  storm  of  fanaticism  against  his  rule,  which  no 
force  could  allay.  In  1747,  at  the  age  of  sixty,  he  was  cut 
off  by  assassins,  after  a  troubled  reign  of  eleven  years. 

The  invasion  of  Nadir  Shah  inflicted  a  mortal  blow  on 


MUHAMMADAN   INDIA  269 

the  Moghul  empire.  Muhammad  Shah  was  reseated  on  the 
throne  of  his  fathers,  but  his  sovereignty  was  little  better 
than  a  name.  The  Viceroys  of  the  provinces  had  become 
independent  princes.  The  death  of  a  Subahdar  or  Nawab 
was  followed  by  fratricidal  wars  like  those  which  attended 
the  demise  of  a  Padishah ;  and  not  inf requently  by  the  ele- 
vation of  a  usurper  with  no  other  authority  than  that  derived 
from  the  sword.  The  Mahrattas  were  no  longer  to  be  quieted 
by  payments  from  the  imperial  treasury,  for  the  treasury  had 
been  emptied  by  Nadir  Shah;  and  the  Mahratta  leaders  led 
their  hoets  of  horsemen  to  the  remotest  quarters  of  India, 
plundering  and  devastating  the  two  Carnatics  in  the  south- 
ern Peninsula,  and  at  the  same  time  spreading  like  destroying 
locusts  over  the  fertile  plains  of  Bengal. 

Baji  Rao  died  in  1740,  and  was  succeeded  in  the  post  of 
Peishwa  by  his  son  Balaji  Rao.  Maharaja  Sahu  died  in 
1748,  the  year  after  the  assassination  of  Nadir  Shah,  and 
was  succeeded  on  the  throne  of  Satara  by  a  nominal  sover- 
eign named  Raja  Ram.  At  the  same  time  a  noiseless  revo- 
lution was  carried  out,  under  which  the  real  sovereignty  was 
transferred  from  the  Maharaja  to  the  Peishwa.  Raja  Ram 
reigned  as  a  state  pageant  in  the  fortress  or  prison  at  Satara; 
while  Balaji  Rao  removed  the  Mahratta  court  to  Poona,  and 
reigned  at  the  old  capital  of  Sivaji  as  the  independent  sover- 
eign of  the  Mahratta  empire,  but  under  the  old  name  of 
Peishwa  or  minister. 

Muhammad  Shah  died  in  1748,  the  same  year  that  saw 
the  death  of  Maharaja  Sahu.  At  this  moment  a  new  enemy 
appeared  in  Hindustan  to  contest  with  the  Mahrattas  for  su- 
premacy. The  assassination  of  Nadir  Shah  in  the  previous 
year  had  delivered  the  Afghans  from  the  Persian  yoke.  An- 
other Asiatic  conqueror  rose  to  the  front  under  the  name  of 
Ahmad  Shah  Abdali.  He  extended  the  independent  empire 
of  the  Afghans  over  the  greater  part  of  Central  Asia,  includ- 
ing the  Punjab  and  Kashmir.  He  invaded  Hindustan  for 
the  purpose  of  re-establishing  the  old  Afghan  supremacy  in 
India.  The  consequence  was  that  the  successors  of  Mu- 


270  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

hammad  Shah  were  mere  pageants  in  the  hands  of  rival 
ministers,  who  in  their  turn  were  alternately  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Mahrattas  and  Afghans. 

At  this  turning-point  in  the  downward  career  of  the  once 
Great  Moghul,  the  history  of  India  underwent  an  entire 
revolution.  The  Moghul  empire  was  broken  up  never  to 
be  restored.  The  foundations  of  a  new  empire  were  laid  by 
English  settlers,  which  was  destined  to  extend  its  paramount 
influence  over  the  whole  of  India  from  sea  to  sea.  The  cen- 
tre of  political  interest  is  thus  transferred  from  the  old  Moghul 
capital  of  Delhi  to  the  English  settlements  of  Madras  and  Cal- 
cutta. The  Hindu  nationalities  of  India,  after  centuries  of 
repression,  were  to  be  educated  by  British  administrators  in 
a  knowledge  of  that  civilization  which  has  regenerated  the 
western  world  and  established  the  reign  of  order  and  of  law. 
In  this  manner  the  people  of  India  are  being  trained  and 
disciplined  by  British  rule  for  a  new  career  of  national  life, 
which  can  only  be  revealed  in  the  unknown  world  of  the 
future. 


PART   III  — BRITISH   INDIA 


CHAPTER  I 
ENGLISH    AT   MADRAS 

A.D.  1700  TO  1756 

DURING  the  early  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
English  town  of  Madras  grew  into  an  important  set- 
tlement.    It  was  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  out 
villages,  which  still  give  their  names  to  different  quarters 
of  the  modern  city.1     It  carried  on  a  profitable  trade  with 
Burma  and  Siam,  Sumatra  and  China.     It  employed  more 
weavers  and  manufactured  more  cotton  piece  goods  than 
at  any  previous  period;   and  no  settlement  in  the  eastern 
seas  was  regarded  by  the  English  Company  with  more  pride 
and  complacency  than  Madras  and  Fort  St.  George. 

The  government  of  Madras  was  the  natural  outcome  of 
a  trading  agency.  The  establishment  of  every  English  fac- 
tory in  India  originally  consisted  of  a  certain  number  of  Eu- 
ropean servants,  graded  as  writers,  factors  and  merchants, 
who  were  paid  small  salaries,  but  were  lodged  and  boarded 
at  the  Company's  expense.  In  the  seventeenth  century  a 
writer  only  drew  ten  pounds  per  annum,  a  factor  only  twenty 
pounds,  and  a  merchant  only  forty  pounds ;  while  the  yearly 
salary  of  the  president  or  governor  was  only  three  or  four 
hundred  pounds.  In  the  eighteenth  century  salaries  were 

1  In  the  seventeenth  century,  Nunkumbaukum,  Vepery,  Egmore,  Roya- 
poorum,  and  other  localities  familiar  to  modern  residents  in  Madras,  were 
native  villages  outside  the  Company's  grounds. 

(271) 


272  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

considerably  raised,  but  were  still  absurdly  small  to  modern 
eyes.  Every  servant  of  the  Company,  however,  was  allowed 
the  privilege  of  engaging  in  private  trade,  so  long  as  he  con- 
fined it  to  the  ports  in  the  eastern  seas,  and  did  not  meddle 
in  the  Company's  monopoly  of  trade  with  Europe. 

The  governor  of  Madras  exercised  supreme  control  over 
the  "White  town,  but  was  helped  by  a  council  of  selected  mer- 
chants; and  so  indeed  were  the  governors  of  Bombay  and 
Calcutta.  Such  was  the  simple  origin  of  the  governors  in 
council  for  Madras  and  Bombay,  and  the  Viceroy  in  council 
for  the  whole  of  India.  The  governor  and  council  at  Madras, 
during  the  seventeenth  and  nearly  half  of  the  eighteenth  cent- 
uries, were  chiefly  engaged  in  superintending  the  Company's 
trade;  in  selling  English  manufactures  and  commodities  in 
Indian  markets,  and  providing  Indian  products  and  manu- 
factures for  the  home  markets.  They  also  regulated  all 
matters  connected  with  revenue  and  expenditure;  and  in- 
vestigated and  punished  all  offences  committed  by  Euro- 
peans. Besides  the  governor  and  council,  a  court,  consist- 
ing of  a  mayor  and  aldermen,  was  established  by  royal 
charter  for  the  trial  of  all  civil  cases  in  which  Europeans 
were  concerned;  but  there  always  seems  to  have  been  an 
appeal  to  the  governor  and  council. 

The  administration  of  justice  among  the  natives  in  Black 
town  was  more  simple  and  Oriental.  English  justices  of  the 
peace  sat  in  certain  courts  or  choultries,  and  promptly  dis- 
posed of  all  cases,  civil  and  criminal,  by  fine,  imprisonment, 
or  whipping;  and  appeals  to  the  governor  and  council  were 
very  rare,  except  in  capital  cases,  or  where  there  was  some 
doubt  about  jurisdiction.  The  duties  of  the  police  were  car- 
ried out  by  a  Hindu  official,  known  as  the  Pedda  Naik,  who 
was  bound  to  make  good  all  stolen  property.  He  was  re- 
munerated, Hindu  fashion,  by  a  grant  of  hereditary  lands, 
and  small  octroi  duties  levied  on  certain  classes  of  commod- 
ities admitted  into  the  town. 

The  English  at  Madras  had  always  been  jealous  of  the 
Dutch,  but  only  as  rivals  in  the  Indian  trade  The  Dutch 


BRITISH    INDIA 


273 


INDIA 

to  illustrate 

EARLY  ENGLISH  SETTLEMENTS 
BEFORE  1750  . 
Statute  Miles** 
too  oo     o  100         IOD         aoo 


274  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

had  a  fort  and  town  at  Pulicat,  about  twenty-four  miles  to 
the  northward  of  Madras;  and  occasionally  civilities  and 
hospitalities  were  exchanged  between  the  authorities  of 
Pulicat  and  those  of  Fort  St.  George.  The  Dutch  also 
had  a  fort  and  town  at  Sadras,  about  forty  miles  to  the 
southward  of  Madras ;  and  the  ruins  of  well-ordered  towers 
and  ramparts,  prim  gardens,  neat  water  channels,  and  se- 
cluded bowers  will  still  meet  the  eye  of  the  pilgrim  who 
seeks  to  recall  the  old  days  of  Dutch  rule  in  India. 

But  the  English  of  the  eighteenth  century  hated  the 
French  as  their  natural  enemies;  and  this  hatred  was  in- 
tensified in  India  by  the  fact  that  the  natural  enemies  were 
commercial  rivals.  The  French  had  built  a  town  and  fort 
at  Pondicherry,  about  a  hundred  miles  to  the  south  of  Ma- 
dras; and  whenever  a  difference  arose  between  the  two 
governments,  it  was  accompanied  by  a  warm  correspond- 
ence which  plainly  revealed  the  hostile  feeling  which  was 
burning  on  either  side. 

Besides  Madras,  the  English  had  founded  a  settlement 
at  Fort  St.  David,  near  the  mouth  of  the  southern  Pennar 
river.  It  was  only  twelve  miles  to  the  south  of  Pondi- 
cherry; and  seems  to  have  been  a  rival  establishment  to 
Pondicherry.  Fort  St.  David  plays  an  important  part  in 
the  after  history;  for  the  English  at  that  settlement  hated 
the  French  with  as  much  warmth  as  their  brethren  at  Fort 
•St.  George. 

The  English  at  Madras  and  Fort  St.  David  were  also 
troubled  by  so-called  interlopers ;  a  name  applied  to  all  En- 
glish adventurers  who  were  not  in  the  service  of  the  Com- 
pany, and  who  were  not  licensed  to  dwell  as  free  merchants 
within  the  Company's  bounds.  These  interlopers  were  gen- 
erally roving  captains,  who  persisted  in  carrying  on  an 
illicit  trade  in  the  eastern  seas,  in  defiance  of  the  monopoly 
granted  to  the  Company  by  the  charter;  and  who  often 
combined  the  pursuits  of  trade  with  those  of  slave-dealing 
and  piracy. 

The  political  outlook  at  Madras  was  confined  to  the  Car- 


BRITISH    INDIA  275 

natic. '  Since  the  death  of  Aurangzeb  this  province  had  been 
an  appanage  of  the  Nizam  of  the  Dekhan;  in  other  words, 
it  was  governed  by  a  Nawab,  who  was  appointed  by  the 
Nizam  subject  to  confirmation  and  investiture  by  the  Great 
Moghul. 

The  Moghul  province  of  the  Carnatic  was  supposed  to 
extend  north  and  south  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  river 
Kistna  to  Cape  Cormorin,  and  east  and  west  from  the  coast 
of  Coromandel  to  the  Eastern  Ghats,  which  cut  it  off  from 
Mysore  and  Malabar.8  Politically,  however,  it  was  divided 
into  a  northern  and  a  southern  region  by  the  river  Koleroon ; 
and  this  distinction  is  the  key  to  the  after  history. 

The  region  to  the  north  of  the  Koleroon  might  be  termed 
the  Moghul  Carnatic.  It  had  been  conquered  by  the  Mo- 
ghuls,  and  brought  under  Moghul  rule;  and  all  the  towns, 
districts  and  more  important  fortresses  were  under  the  com- 
mand of  Moghul  officers. 

The  region  to  the  south  of  the  Koleroon  might  be  termed 
the  Hindu  Carnatic.  It  was  for  the  most  part  under  the 
dominion  of  the  Hindu  Rajas  of  Trichinopoly  and  Tanjore. 
Both  these  Rajas  had  been  conquered  by  the  Moghul,  so  far 
as  to  pay  a  subsidy  or  tribute ;  but  nevertheless  they  main- 
tained an  independent  rule  in  their  respective  kingdoms; 
and  no  Nawab  had  ever  annexed  their  territories  to  his  own 
province.  These  Rajas  had  been  Naiks,  or  governors  of 
provinces,  under  the  old  Hindu  empire  of  Vijayanagar;  and 
they  might  be  described  as  the  relics  of  the  empire,  half  con- 
quered by  the  Moghul,  but  rarely  paying  tribute  unless 
compelled  by  force  of  arms. 


1  Properly  speaking,  this  Carnatic  should  be  termed  "Lower  Carnatic,"  or 
Carnatic  below  the  Eastern  Ghats,  to  distinguish  it  from  Mysore  and  other  Hindu 
countries  to  the  westward,  which  are  sometimes  included  under  the  name  of 
"Upper  Carnatic,"  or  Carnatic  above  the  Ghats.     The  term  Caruatic  is  so  often 
applied  to  the  Lower  Carnatic  only  that  it  may  be  used  for  the  future  in  its  latter 
application. 

2  The  real  boundary  of  the  Carnatic  province  on  the  north  was  the  little  river 
Gundlacama,  half-way  between  the  Kistna  and  the  northern  Pennar.     The  tract 
between  the  Gundlacama  and  the  Kistna  was  at  one  time  of  some  importance  in 
»  quarrel  about  the  Northern  Circars. 


276  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

Besides  the  two  Rajas  there  was  a  class  of  minor  chiefs, 
known  as  Poligars.  They  were  to  be  found  both  north  and 
south  of  the  Koleroon.  They  had  been  feudal  barons  under 
the  old  Hindu  rule  of  Vijayanagar,  holding  their  lands  by 
military  tenure ;  but,  like  the  old  chiefs  of  Highland  clans, 
they  refused  to  accept  the  Moghul  regime,  and  indeed  were 
often  disaffected  toward  the  Hindu  Rajas.  Sometimes  they 
were  forced  to  pay  tribute  or  allegiance ;  but  often  they  main- 
tained a  rude  independence  in  some  remote  stronghold. 

The  Moghul  conquest  was  hurtful  to  the  people  of  the 
northern  region.  The  revenue  was  mostly  derived  from  the 
land,  and  the  Moghul  Nawabs  were  harder  task-masters  than 
Hindu  Rajas.  The  Hindu  kingdoms  descended  from  father 
to  son,  and  were  regarded  as  family  property ;  and  self-inter- 
est led  successive  Rajas  to  encourage  cultivators,  and  keep 
tanks  and  irrigation  works  in  repair. '  But  the  earlier  Na- 
wabs were  removed  at  will  by  the  Nizam  or  the  Great  Mo- 
ghul. They  cared  only  to  make  money,  and  paid  no  heed 
to  the  future.  They  doubled  the  land  assessments,  and  let 
the  tanks  and  irrigation  works  go  to  rack  and  ruin ;  and  for 
some  years  many  lands  fell  out  of  cultivation,  and  grain  rose 
to  famine  prices. 

Meanwhile  the  inland  trade  of  the  English  had  fallen  off. 
The  ravages  of  the  Mahrattas  in  the  Upper  Carnatic  pre- 
vented the  Canarese  merchants  of  Mysore  and  elsewhere 
from  bringing  their  cotton-yarn  to  Madras.  The  removal 
of  the  imperial  camp  from  the  Dekhan  to  Delhi,  after  the 
death  of  Aurangzeb,  had  ruined  the  trade  in  scarlet  and 
green  broadcloths.  The  outbreaks  of  Poligars  and  free- 
booters, as  well  as  threatened  invasions  of  Mahrattas,  created 
general  alarm ;  and  wealthy  natives  hoarded  their  treasures 
in  strongholds,  or  sent  them  to  Madras  or  Pondicherry  for 
security. 

But  the  prosperity  of  Madras  was  increasing.     The  de- 

1  The  comparative  merits  of  Hindu  and  Moghul  rule  are  open  to  question. 
The  Catholic  missionaries  in  Southern  India  during  the  seventeenth  century  are 
loud  in  their  denunciations  of  the  cruelties  aiid  oppressions  of  the  Hindu  Rajas. 


BRITISH   INDIA  277 

mand  from  Europe  for  cotton  piece  goods  was  greater  than 
ever.  The  English  founded  two  new  towns  for  the  exclusive 
accommodation  of  spinners,  weavers,  dyers,  washers,  and 
other  Hindus  engaged  in  the  manufacture.  They  also 
planted  trees  for  the  accommodation  of  this  class  of  peo- 
ple, who  were  accustomed  to  work  in  the  open  air.  Hindus 
of  other  castes  were  not  allowed  to  dwell  in  these  towns, 
always  excepting  betel  sellers,  dancing-girls,  and  Brahmans. ' 

The  English  at  Madras  and  Fort  St.  David  were  mere 
traders,  and  cared  but  little  about  the  country  powers.  They 
were  industrious  and  respectable,  but  curious  only  as  regards 
products  and  manufactures.  The  Moghuls  on  their  part  had 
grown  jealous  of  Europeans,  and  were  anxious  to  keep  them 
ignorant  of  all  that  was  going  on.  The  Nawab  kept  his 
court  at  Arcot,  which  was  only  seventy  miles  from  Madras ; 
but  the  English  knew  as  little  of  Arcot  as  they  did  of  Delhi. 
They  paid  their  yearly  rent  to  the  Nawab,  and  sent  him 
complimentary  letters  and  presents,  and  that  was  all.* 

In  1732  a  Nawab  died  at  Arcot.  He  had  been  appointed 
by  a  Nizam  of  the  Dekhan  as  far  back  as  1712,  but  on  his 
death,  in  1732,  he  was  succeeded  by  an  adopted  son,  named 
Dost  Ali,  without  any  reference  to  the  Nizam.  This  assump- 
tion of  hereditary  right  by  the  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic  was 
very  gruvelling  to  Nizam-ul-mulk.  To  make  matters  worse, 
Dost  Ali  withheld  the  revenge  or  tribute  which  previous 
Nawabs  had  paid  to  the  Nizam.3  But  Nizam-ul-mulk  was 
obliged  to  pocket  the  affront.  He  was  too  much  harassed  by 
the  Mahrattas,  and  worried  by  Delhi  intrigues,  to  interfere 


1  These  two  towns  are  well  known  to  residents  in  Madras.  Collet's  petta 
was  founded  in  1720;  Chindadree  petta  in  1734.  Betel  sellers,  dancing-girls, 
and  Brahmans  are  necessities  of  Hindu  life,  and  no  Hindu  village  is  complete 
without  them. 

J  This  ignorance  of  the  surrounding  country  was  peculiar  to  the  English  at 
Madras.  It  will  be  seen  hereafter  that  the  English  at  Calcutta  were  far  better 
acquainted  with  Bengal. 

3  By  this  time  the  office  of  Dewan,  or  accountant-general  in  behalf  of  the 
Great  Moghul,  had  become  a  farce.  Dost  Ali  appointed  one  Chunder  Sahib  to 
be  Dewan,  and  gave  him  a  daughter  in  marriage.  Subsequently  this  Chunder 
Sahib  became  an  important  personage. 


#78  mSTORY    OF   INDIA 

with  Arcot  affairs.  Accordingly  he  nursed  his  wrath  and 
bided  his  time. 

In  1736  there  was  a  revolution  in  the  Hindu  Carnatic. 
The  two  kingdoms  of  Trichinopoly  and  Tanjore  were  situ- 
ated, as  already  described,  immediately  to  the  south  of  the 
Koleroon;  and  they  stretched  over  an  unknown  tract  of 
country  toward  Comorin.  Trichinopoly  was  an  inland  terri- 
tory, and  included  the  three  important  towns  of  Trichinopoly, 
Dindigul,  and  Madura.  Tanjore  lay  to  the  eastward,  and 
stretched  to  the  coast  of  Coromandel.  It  was  the  more  fer- 
tile territory  of  the  two,  for  it  included  the  rich  delta  of  the 
Koleroon  and  Kaveri;  and  to  this  day  Tanjore  is  regarded 
as  the  granary  of  southern  India.  But  Tanjore  was  at  the 
mercy  of  Trichinopoly.  The  rivers  Koleroon  and  Kaveri 
were  only  kept  asunder  by  an  embankment ;  and  by  break- 
ing down  that  embankment  the  Kaveri  rushed  into  the 
Koleroon  and  Tanjore  was  robbed  of  her  water  supply. 

In  1736  the  Raja  of  Trichinopoly  died,  leaving  no  chil- 
dren. Consequently  there  was  a  war  for  the  succession 
between  the  brothers  of  the  Raja  and  the  brothers  of  the 
Rani;  while  the  Rani  herself  claimed  to  be  regent  until 
the  son  of  her  eldest  brother  should  attain  his  majority. 

The  possession  of  Trichinopoly  had  long  been  coveted  by 
the  Nawabs  of  the  Carnatic;  it  was  in  fact  the  key  to  the 
Peninsula.  Accordingly  the  Nawab  Dost  Ah  interfered  in 
the  affairs  of  Trichinopoly  as  the  pretended  friend  of  the 
Rani.  He  sent  an  army  to  Trichinopoly  under  his  son 
Subder  Ali  and  his  son-in-law  Chunder  Sahib.1 

The  son-in-law  was  a  much  sharper  man  than  the  son. 
Chunder  Sahib  gulled  the  Rani;  pretended  to  be  in  love 
with  her;  swore  on  the  Koran  to  be  faithful  to  her  cause; 
and  finally  deluded  her  into  admitting  him  and  his  troops 
into  the  walls  of  Trichinopoly.  The  Rani  soon  found  that 
she  was  betrayed ;  she  was  thrown  into  prison,  and  is  said 
to  have  taken  poison. 

1  Chunder  Sahib  was  the  man  who  married  a  daughter  o*.  the  Nawab,  and 
was  appointed  Dewan. 


BRITISH    INDIA  279 

Chunder  Sahib  soon  took  possession  of  the  city  and  the 
Raj.  He  sent  one  of  his  kinsmen  to  command  at  Dindigul, 
and  another  to  command  at  Madura.  The  people  of  Trichi- 
nopoly  bent  as  usual  to  their  fate :  it  was  the  will  of  the  gods. 
Subder  AH  was  enraged  at  finding  that  Chunder  Sahib  was 
holding  Trichinopoly  and  could  not  be  ousted.  Accordingly 
he  nursed  his  vengeance  and  returned  to  Arcot.  In  like, 
manner  the  Rajas  of  Tanjore  and  Mysore  were  bitterly 
incensed  against  Chunder  Sahib  -for  putting  an  end  to  the 
Hindu  dynasty  of  Trichinopoly,  and  bringing  the  country 
under  Muhammadan  rule.  But,  like  Subder  Ah",  they  did 
nothing  and  patiently  abided  their  time. 

In  1740  the  Mahrattas  invaded  the  Carnatic,  plundering 
and  destroying  according  to  their  wont.  Some  said  that  the 
Nizam  had  invited  them  in  order  to  punish  the  Nawab. 
Others  said  that  the  Rajas  of  Tanjore  and  Mysore  had  in- 
vited them  to  punish  Chunder  Sahib.  Others,  again,  said 
that  the  Great  Moghul  was  unable  to  pay  the  chout  after  the 
invasion  of  Nadir  Shah,  and  therefore  told  them  to  collect 
it  in  the  Carnatic  and  Bengal.  Such  conflicting  rumors  are 
always  noised  abroad  in  India  on  like  occasions,  and  it  is 
often  impossible  to  say  whether  any  of  them  are  false  or 
true. 

Nawab  Dost  Ali  had  tried  to  keep  out  the  Mahrattas  by 
marching  an  army  to  the  Eastern  Ghats,  and  blocking  up 
the  passes  which  led  from  Mysore  into  the  Carnatic,  until 
he  could  assemble  the  whole  of  his  forces  from  different 
parts  of  the  province.  But  there  was  treachery  in  his  camp. 
One  of  his  own  officers  admitted  the  Mahrattas  by  a  secret 
pass.  The  Mahrattas  took  him  by  surprise,  and  assailed 
his  army  with  the  utmost  fury.  He  was  slain  in  the  midst 
of  the  action;  and  his  troops,  seeing  that  their  Nawab  was 
dead,  fled  in  confusion  after  the  manner  of  Oriental  armies. 

The  Mahratta  invasion  spread  universal  terror.  Subder 
Ali,  the  son  of  the  deceased  Nawab,  fled  to  the  strong  fort 
of  Vellore,  about  twelve  miles  from  Arcot.  Chunder  Sahib 
sent  his  wife  and  treasures  to  Pondi  cherry,  and  collected 


380  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

vast  stores  of  grain  within  the  city  of  Trichinopoly  in  order 
to  stand  a  lengthy  siege.  The  English  at  Madras  began 
to  look  after  their  defences,  and  shared  hi  the  general 
alarm. 

The  Mahrattas  were  disappointed  of  the  spoil.  All  the 
gold  and  jewels  in  the  country  had  been  hoarded  up  in 
strongholds.  The  Mahrattas  had  no  guns  or  battering  train 
of  any  kind ;  and  it  was  impossible  for  loose  bands  of  horse- 
men to  capture  fortresses,  except  by  bribery,  stratagem,  or 
starvation.  Accordingly  they  accepted  an  offer  of  rupees 
to  the  value  of  a  million  sterling  from  Subder  Ali,  to  be  paid 
by  instalments ;  they  then  left  the  Carnatic,  giving  out  that 
they  were  going  to  plunder  some  other  part  of  India. 

The  departure  of  the  Mahrattas  was  a  ruse.  Subder  Ali 
had  secretly  engaged  to  let  them  take  possession  of  Trichi- 
nopoly, provided  they  carried  off  his  ambitious  brother-in- 
law,  Chunder  Sahib,  and  kept  him  prisoner  at  Satara.  Their 
object  in  leaving  the  Carnatic  was  to  blind  Chunder  Sahib, 
and  in  this  they  fully  succeeded.  Chunder  Sahib  thought 
that  the  Mahrattas  would  never  return,  and  foolishly  sold 
off  all  the  grain  he  had  stored  in  Trichinopoly.  Suddenly, 
to  his  surprise  and  mortification,  the  Mahrattas  returned  to 
Trichinopoly,  and  closely  besieged  the  city.  Chunder  Sahib 
was  helpless ;  and  was  soon  compelled  by  sheer  starvation  to 
surrender  the  city.  He  was  then  carried  off  to  Satara,  and 
languished  in  a  Mahratta  prison  for  more  than  six  years. 
Meanwhile  the  Mahrattas  held  possession  of  Trichinopoly. 
The  bulk  of  the  Mahratta  army  returned  to  the  Konkan; 
but  a  general,  named  Morari  Rao,  remained  in  command 
of  Trichinopoly  and  kept  a  watchful  eye  on  the  progress  of 
affairs  in  the  Carnatic. 

For  a  brief  interval  Subder  Ali  was  at  ease.  He  had 
purchased  the  imprisonment  of  his  dangerous  brother-in-law, 
Chunder  Sahib,  by  permitting  the  Mahrattas  to  occupy 
Trichinopoly.  He  was  still  pledged  to  pay  the  Mahrattas 
a  subsidy  of  a  million  sterling;  and  this  was  a  matter  that 
required  prompt  attention.  Meanwhile  he  proceeded  to 


BRITISH    INDIA  281 

Arcot,  and  was  proclaimed  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic  in  suc- 
cession to  his  father,  who  had  been  slain  in  the  passes. 

At  this  juncture  Subder  Ali  was  threatened  by  a  new 
danger  from  Hyderabad.  Nizam-ul-mulk  had  been  for  a 
long  time  exasperated  at  the  unauthorized  succession  of  Dost 
Ali  to  the  Nawabship  of  the  Carnatic  and  the  non-payment 
of  tribute.  Since  then  the  occupation  of  Trichinopoly  by 
Chunder  Sahib  had  added  fuel  to  his  anger;  for  in  spite 
of  domestic  dissensions,  the  acquisition  of  Trichinopoly  had 
added  to  the  material  resources  of  the  Nawab's  family,  and 
would  doubtless  encourage  the  Nawab  himself  to  persist  in 
disregarding  the  superior  authority  of  the  Nizam.  The 
invasion  of  Nadir  Shah  had  compelled  Nizam-ul-mulk  to 
bottle  up  his  wrath;  but  the  progress  of  affairs  during  the 
interval  had  not  improved  his  temper.  The  Mahrattas  had 
secured  a  dangerous  footing  in  the  Carnatic  by  the  occupa- 
tion of  Trichinopoly.  Worse  than  all,  Subder  Ali  had  fol- 
lowed the  contumacious  example  set  by  his  deceased  father, 
by  assuming  the  Nawabship  of  the  Carnatic  without  any 
reference  to  Hyderabad  or  Delhi. 

Under  these  circumstances  Nizam-ul-mulk  demanded  the 
immediate  payment  of  all  arrears  of  tribute  from  the  new 
Nawab.  Subder  Ali  was  at  his  wits'  end.  He  was  firmly 
resolved  not  to  pay  the  demand.  Meanwhile  he  sent  his 
family  and  treasures  to  Madras.  He  shut  himself  up  in  the 
strong  fortress  of  Vellore,  which  was  commanded  by  another 
brother-in-law,  named  Mortiz  Ali. '  He  vowed  that  the  Mah- 
rattas had  emptied  his  treasury  of  his  last  rupee.  He  feigned 
a  pious  intention  of  abdicating  his  throne,  and  going  on  pil- 
grimage to  Mecca.  He  even  made  one  or  two  journeys  to 
Madras  to  induce  the  Nizam  to  believe  that  he  was  going 
to  embark  there  for  Mecca. 

All  this  while  Subder  Ali  knew  that  he  must  pay  the 
Mahrattas.  The  Nizam  might  be  deceived  for  a  while  by 

1  Chunder  Sahib  and  Mortiz  Ali  had  each  married  daughters  of  Dost  Ali,  and 
were  consequently  brothers-in-law  of  the  reigning  Nawab.  Both  men  played 
important  parts  in  the  after  history. 


282  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

protestations  of  poverty,  or  threats  of  going  to  Mecca;  but 
the  Mahrattas  were  the  most  pertinacious  people  in  all  India, 
and  were  deaf  to  all  vows  and  prayers  that  were  not  backed 
up  by  rupees.  Any  attempt  on  the  part  of  Subder  Ali  to 
delay  payment  would  be  followed  by  another  Mahratta  in- 
vasion of  the  Carnatic,  and  the  probable  release  of  Chunder 
Sahib.  Accordingly  Subder  Ali  levied  contributions  from 
all  commanders  of  towns  and  forts  throughout  the  province, 
in  order  to  pay  the  subsidy  promised  to  the  Mahrattas. 
Mortiz  Ali  refused  payment  of  his  quota.  The  Nawab  was 
excessively  angry,  for  Mortiz  Ali  was  the  richest  man  in 
the  province,  and  unless  he  was  made  to  pay,  other  com- 
manders would  refuse  to  pay  in  like  manner. 

Accordingly  the  Nawab  peremptorily  demanded  the 
money.  The  story  of  what  followed  was  told  with  horror 
at  Madras  for  generations  afterward.  The  Nawab  was 
quartered  in  the  fortress  of  Vellore,  where  his  brother-in-law 
Mortiz  Ali  was  commandant;  but  there  was  no  suspicion  of 
danger;  for  although  the  money  quarrel  was  bitter,  there 
was  no  lack  of  outward  courtesy  and  politeness  on  either 
side. 

The  great  festival  of  the  Muharram  approached,  when 
all  Sunni  Muhammadans  devote  themselves  to  feasting  and 
rejoicing,  while  the  Shiahs  lament  and  beat  their  breasts 
over  the  martyrdom  of  Ali  and  his  two  sons,  Hasan  and 
Husain.  The  Nawab  permitted  his  officers  to  leave  the 
fortress  in  order  to  keep  the  festival  with  their  wives  and 
families.  At  midnight  an  Afghan  broke  into  his  chamber, 
followed  by  black  Abyssinian  slaves.  The  unfortunate 
Nawab  raised  a  cry  of  alarm,  and  rushed  to  the  window; 
but  was  soon  cut  down  and  stabbed  to  death  by  the  poniards 
of  the  assassins. 

Next  morning  the  Nawab's  army,  which  was  encamped 
outside  the  fortress,  raised  a  tumult.  They  cried  out  that 
the  Nawab  had  been  assassinated  by  Mortiz  Ali;  and  they 
prepared  to  storm  the  fortress  sword  in  hand,  and  avenge 
the  murder.  But  the  soldiery  were  quieted  after  Oriental 


BRITISH    INDIA  283 

fashion.  Large  arrears  of  pay  were  due  from  the  dead 
Nawab;  and  the  men  were  promised  early  payment  of  the 
whole  by  instalments,  if  they  would  only  accept  Mortiz  All 
as  his  successor.  Accordingly,  Mortiz  Ali  was  proclaimed 
Nawab,  and  then  marched  in  triumph  from  Vellore  to  Arcot, 
and  took  up  his  quarters  at  the  palace. 

But  the  leading  men  in  the  Carnatic  detested  the  crime 
of  Mortiz  Ali.  They  applied  to  Morari  Rao  at  Trichinopoly, 
who  foresaw  a  new  complication,  and  openly  declared  against 
Mortiz  Ali.  They  sent  messengers  to  the  English  at  Madras, 
begging  that  the  governor  would  protect  the  family  and 
treasures  of  the  murdered  Nawab.  Lastly,  they  stirred  up 
the  army  against  Mortiz  Ali;  and  the  question  of  the  suc- 
cession seemed  to  turn  upon  a  matter  of  pay.  The  soldiery 
demanded  the  immediate  payment  of  all  the  arrears  in  full, 
which  they  had  previously  agreed  to  receive  by  instalments. 
Had  Mortiz  Ali  produced  the  money  at  once,  he  might  pos- 
sibly have  secured  himself  hi  the  post  of  Nawab ;  but  he  was 
seized  with  a  panic,  and  would  not  stand  the  storm.  He  put 
on  a  woman's  dress,  and  entered  a  covered  palanquin,  and 
fled  at  night  time  from  Arcot  to  Vellore,  accompanied  by 
several  female  attendants.  The  result  was  that  the  young 
son  of  Subder  AH,  who  had  been  under  the  protection  of  the 
English  at  Madras,  was  proclaimed  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic 
in  the  room  of  his  father. 

By  this  time  Nizam-ul-mulk  resolved  to  march  to  Arcot, 
and  settle  the  affairs  of  the  Carnatic.  He  had  arranged 
matters  at  Delhi,  where  his  eldest  son  had  been  appointed 
minister;  and  he  had  made  his  peace  with  the  Mahrattas. 
Accordingly  he  left  Hyderabad  in  the  beginning  of  1743, 
and  in  March  the  same  year  he  encamped  at  Arcot  with  an 
overwhelming  army. 

At  Arcot  the  Nizam  found  the  Carnatic  at  his  feet. 
Every  grandee  was  anxious  to  pay  submission  and  homage 
to  the  great  Nizam-ul-mulk,  the  pillar  of  the  Moghul  em- 
pire. But  he  himself  was  struck  with  the  anarchy  which 
prevailed  throughout  the  Carnatic.  Every  petty  comman- 


284  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

dant  of  a  fort  or  district  assumed  the  title  of  Nawab;  and 
no  less  than  eighteen  of  these  little  Nawabs  were  introduced 
to  the  Nizam  in  one  day.  The  old  grandee  of  the  court  of 
Aurangzeb  lost  his  temper  at  this  enormity.  He  declared 
that  there  was  but  one  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic;  and  he 
threatened  to  scourge  the  first  person  who  should  venture 
for  the  future  to  usurp  such  a  title.  He  appointed  a  new 
Nawab  of  the  Carnatic,  named  Anwar-ud-din ;  but  he  gave 
out  that  Anwar-ud-din  would  be  the  guardian  of  the  son  of 
Subder  Ali;  and  that  when  the  boy  prince  became  of  age, 
he  would  be  made  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic. 

The  Nizam  next  proceeded  to  Trichinopoly,  and  recov- 
ered the  city  from  the  Mahrattas.  The  governor  of  Madras 
sent  a  deputation  to  Trichinopoly  to  wait  on  the  great  man 
with  a  letter  and  presents.  The  Nizam  received  the  English 
gentlemen  with  much  state,  but  with  singular  courtesy.  He 
praised  the  presents  sent  to  him,  and  promised  to  forward 
some  to  the  Great  Moghul  at  Delhi,  and  to  say  that  they 
came  from  the  English  governor  of  Madras.  He  said  he 
wanted  guns,  powder,  mortars,  and  shells,  and,  above  all, 
the  services  of  an  experienced  gunner;  but  he  added  that  he 
would  take  nothing  unless  he  was  permitted  to  pay  for  it. 

In  March,  1744,  the  Nizam  left  the  Carnatic  and  returned 
to  Hyderabad.  In  June  the  same  year  the  boy  Nawab  was 
murdered  at  a  wedding-feast.  The  details  were  most  tragi- 
cal. On  the  morning  of  the  ceremony  some  Afghans  had 
clamored  for  arrears  of  pay,  but  apologized  for  their  inso- 
lence and  retired.  Their  captain  especially  appeared  to  be 
very  repentant.  At  night  while  the  guests  were  sitting  in 
the  hall,  the  coming  of  Anwar-ud-din  was  announced,  and 
the  boy  Nawab  went  out  to  the  vestibule  at  the  head  of  the 
stairs  to  receive  his  guardian.  The  Afghan  captain  ascended 
the  steps  with  a  respectful  air  as  if  to  repeat  his  regrets, 
when  he  suddenly  drew  his  dagger  and  stabbed  the  prince 
to  the  heart.  In  a  moment  he  was  cut  to  pieces,  and  his 
Afghans  below  met  with  the  same  fate. 

The  assassination  of  the  young  prince  sent  a  thrill  through 


BRITISH    INDIA  385 

the  Carnatic.  He  was  representative  of  a  family  who  had 
ruled  the  Carnatic  for  thirty  years.  No  member  of  the  fam- 
ily was  eligible  to  succeed  except  Chunder  Sahib  and  Mortiz 
Ali.  But  Chunder  Sahib  was  in  a  Mahratta  prison,  while 
Mortiz  Ali  was  more  hated  than  ever.  Meanwhile  it  was 
everywhere  believed  that  the  murder  was  instigated  by 
Anwar-ud-din  and  Mortiz  Ali.  But  the  general  opinion  had 
no  effect  upon  Nizam-ul-mulk,  and  he  confirmed  Anwar-ud- 
din  in  his  post  of  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic. 

The  English  at  Madras  were  horrified  at  the  assassina- 
tions of  two  Nawabs  in  succession;  but  their  attention  was 
soon  distracted  by  more  important  affairs.  War  was  de- 
clared between  Great  Britain  and  France.  In  1745  an  En- 
glish squadron  appeared  off  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  for  the 
purpose  of  destroying  the  French  settlements  in  the  eastern 
seas. 

M.  Dupleix,  the  governor  of  Pondicherry,  was  in  great 
alarm.  He  sent  large  presents  to  the  new  Nawab,  and 
begged  for  protection.  Anwar-ud-din  replied  by  prohibiting 
the  English  from  engaging  in  hostilities  within  any  part  of 
his  dominions ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  assured  the  English 
that  if  the  French  appeared  hi  superior  force,  he  would  pro- 
hibit them  in  like  manner. 

In  1746  the  English  fleet  left  the  Coromandel  coast,  and 
a  French  squadron,  under  the  command  of  Labourdonnais, 
entered  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  and  threatened  Madras.  The 
defences  of  Fort  St.  George  were  sufficient  to  strike  the  na- 
tives with  awe  and  wonder,  but  they  were  ill  fitted  to  stand 
a  bombardment  from  European  ships.  The  governor  and 
council  of  Madras  requested  the  Nawab  to  fulfil  his  prom- 
ise of  restraining  the  French ;  but  they  neglected  to  send  a 
present.  Accordingly  the  Nawab  seems  to  have  done  noth- 
ing. Madras  was  compelled  to  surrender  to  Labourdonnais, 
under  a  pledge  that  it  should  be  restored  on  payment  of  ran- 
som. Dupleix,  however,  refused  to  recognize  the  pledge;  he 
rejected  all  offers  of  ransom.  He  was  a  fervid  Frenchman, 
bent  on  the  ruin  of  the  English  in  India  as  the  enemies  of 


286  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

the  French  nation.  He  ordered  that  all  the  Company's 
effects,  and  all  private  property  except  clothes  and  jewels, 
should  be  confiscated  as  prize.  Madras  thus  became  a 
French  settlement,  and  its  inhabitants  were  sent  to  Pon- 
dicherry  as  prisoners  of  war.1 

The  Nawab  was  very  wroth  at  seeing  the  French  in  pos- 
session of  Madras.  Dupleix  tried  to  quiet  him  by  promising 
to  give  him  the  town;  but  the  Nawab  soon  saw  that  the 
Frenchman  was  deceiving  him  with  false  promises  in  order 
to  divert  him  from  protecting  the  English.  Accordingly  he 
resolved  to  deprive  the  French  of  their  new  conquest,  and 
sent  an  army  of  ten  thousand  men  and  numerous  cannon  to 
capture  Madras. 

To  the  utter  surprise  and  mortification  of  the  Nawab,  the 
Moghul  army  was  routed  by  a  French  force  of  four  hundred 
men  and  two  guns,  and  compelled  to  fly  back  to  Arcot.  The 
disaster  was  most  humiliating  to  the  Moghul  grandees.  Up 
to  this  time  they  had  proudly  imagined  that  it  was  their 
own  superior  military  prowess  which  induced  Europeans  to 
treat  them  with  so  much  respect  and  deference.  The  spell 
was  broken  by  the  French  at  Madras,  who  defeated  a  Moghul 
army  with  half  a  battalion. 

The  war  between  the  English  and  French  in  the  Carnatic 
lasted  from  1746  to  1748.  It  has  lost  much  of  its  interest 
since  the  two  nations  have  become  friends,  but  it  was  an 
oft-told  story  in  the  last  century.  The  English  removed 
their  seat  of  government  from  Madras  to  Fort  St.  David, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  southern  Pennar;  it  was  only  twelve 
miles  to  the  south  of  Pondicherry,  and  consequently  there 
was  much  smart  fighting  between  the  two  settlements;  and 
the  Nawab  alternately  helped  the  English  and  the  French, 
according  as  either  appeared  to  be  getting  the  upper  hand. 

In  1748  Major  Stringer  Lawrence  arrived  from  England, 


1  Labourdonnais  afterward  returned  to  France,  and  was  thrown  into  the  Bas- 
tile.  He  had  rendered  great  service  to  France,  but  was  charged  by  his  enemies 
with  collusion  with  the  English  at  Madras.  After  three  years  he  was  liberated, 
but  died  shortly  afterward. 


BRITISH    INDIA  287 

and  took  the  command  of  all  the  Company's  forces  in  India. 
Another  fleet  arrived  from  England  under  the  command  of 
Admiral  Boscawen.  A  grand  attack  was  made  on  Pon- 
dicherry  by  land  and  sea;  but  after  a  siege  of  two  months, 
and  the  loss  of  more  than  a  thousand  Europeans,  the  En- 
glish were  compelled  to  retire.  A  few  weeks  afterward 
peace  was  proclaimed  between  Great  Britain  and  France, 
and  Madras  was  ultimately  restored  to  the  English  East 
India  Company  by  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

The  year  1748  is  an  epoch  in  Indian  history — Muham- 
madan,  Hindu,  and  English.  The  Afghans,  delivered  by 
the  death  of  Nadir  Shah  from  the  Persian  yoke,  were  begin- 
ning to  invade  the  Punjab  and  Hindustan.  Muhammad 
Shah,  the  last  of  the  Moghuls  of  any  note,  died  at  Delhi. 
The  aged  Nizam-ul-mulk  died  at  Hyderabad,  and  left  his 
sons  to  fight  for  the  possession  of  his  throne.  Maharaja 
Sahu  died  at  Satara,  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  Peishwas 
began  at  Poona.  Robert  Clive  gained  his  first  laurels  in 
the  defence  of  the  advanced  trench  before  the  walls  of  Pon- 
dicherry.  Finally,  the  war  between  Great  Britain  and  France 
was  brought  to  a  close  by  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

The  name  of  Robert  Clive  first  appeared  in  the  story  of 
the  unsuccessful  siege  of  Pondicherry;  but  in  the  course  of 
a  few  years  more  it  was  a  household  word  throughout  the 
British  Empire.  Robert  Clive  was  born  in  1725.  He  grew 
up  a  bold  and  wayward  boy,  impatient  of  control,  neglecting 
his  studies,  but  firm  and  dauntless  in  all  his  ways,  and  espe- 
cially cool  and  self-possessed  in  the  face  of  danger.  In  1744, 
at  the  age  of  nineteen,  he  landed  at  Madras  as  a  writer  in 
the  mercantile  service  of  the  Company.  When  the  war 
broke  out  with  France,  he  entered  the  military  service  of 
the  Company,  and  obtained  a  commission  as  ensign.  Sub- 
sequently he  received  the  praises  of  the  Court  of  Directors 
for  his  gallantry  at  Pondicherry. 

In  the  beginning  of  1749  the  English  interfered  in  the 
affairs  of  Taujore,  in  the  delta  of  the  Koleroon  and  Kaveri. 
They  had  long  wanted  to  establish  a  settlement  at  Devicotta, 


288  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

about  twenty  miles  to  the  south  of  Fort  St.  David,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Koleroon.  At  last  an  opportunity  presented 
itself.  An  exiled  member  of  the  reigning  family  of  Tanjore 
applied  to  the  English  for  help.  He  persuaded  the  governor 
and  council  at  Fort  St.  David  that  he  was  the  rightful  Raja, 
and  that  the  people  of  Tanjore  would  join  him  the  moment 
he  appeared  at  the  head  of  a  small  force.  He  also  promised 
to  cede  Devicotta,  and  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  war. 

The  English  sent  an  expedition  against  Tanjore,  but  it  was 
a  blunder  from  the  beginning.  They  had  no  possible  excuse 
for  interfering  in  the  Tanjore  succession;  and  would  not  have 
made  the  attempt,  had  they  not  wanted  Devicotta,  and  had 
not  the  unexpected  peace  with  France  placed  a  small  mili- 
tary force  at  their  disposal.  To  make  matters  worse,  the 
people  of  Tanjore  would  not  receive  back  the  pretender,  and 
boldly  resisted  the  English.  All  at  once  the  Raja  agreed  to 
cede  Devicotta;  to  give  a  pension  to  the  pretender,  and  to 
pay  all  the  cost  of  the  English  expedition.  It  turned  out 
that  the  Raja  was  anxious  for  an  alliance  with  the  English. 
Chunder  Sahib,  the  enemy  of  Hindu  Rajas,  had  been  lib- 
erated from  his  Mahratta  prison,  and  proclaimed  Nawab  at 
Arcot;  and  the  Raja  of  Tanjore  saw  that  no  one  but  the 
English  could  protect  him  in  the  coming  struggle. 

Dupleix,  the  French  governor  of  Pondicherry,  was  at  the 
bottom  of  this  revolution.  While  the  English  were  at  war 
for  a  trading  settlement,  Dupleix  was  scheming  for  an  em- 
pire. The  Frenchman  had  grown  disgusted  with  trade ;  the 
profits  of  the  Indian  trade  had  so  diminished  as  to  be,  in  his 
opinion,  unworthy  of  the  French  nation.  He  turned  his  at- 
tention to  the  politics  of  India.  He  saw  that  the  grandees  of 
the  Carnatic  were  hostile  to  the  Nawab  appointed  by  Nizam- 
ul-mulk,  and  hankering  after  the  old  hereditary  family.  He 
procured  the  liberation  of  Chunder  Sahib  by  guaranteeing 
the  payment  of  a  large  ransom  to  the  Mahrattas.  He  was 
alive  to  the  vast  superiority  of  Europeans  over  the  Moghuls, 
and  he  sent  a  French  force  to  help  Chunder  Sahib  to  attack 
Anwar-ud-din.  He  hoped  to  make  Chunder  Sahib  Nawab  of 


BRITISH   INDIA  289 

the  Carnatic ;  to  establish  the  French  nation  as  the  dominant 
power  in  the  Peninsula;  and  to  drive  the  English  out  of 
India  in  the  name  of  the  new  Nawab. 

All  this  machinery  had  been  set  in  motion  by  the  death 
of  Nizam-ul-mulk  in  1748.  Anwar-ud-din,  the  Nawab  of 
the  Carnatic,  had  thereby  lost  his  patron  and  supporter; 
and  was  left  to  contend "  as  he  best  could  against  the  dis- 
affected officers  of  the  Carnatic  who  were  yearning  for  the 
restoration  of  the  old  dynasty  of  Nawabs.  At  the  same  time 
Chunder  Sahib  was  no  longer  in  fear  of  the  interference  of 
the  Nizam,  and  had  everything  to  hope  from  the  enemies 
of  Anwar-ud-din. 

Meanwhile  the  death  of  Nizam-ul-mulk  was  opening  out 
new  fields  of  ambition  to  Dupleix.  The  struggle  between 
two  rival  Nawabs  for  the  throne  of  the  Carnatic  was  soon 
overshadowed  by  a  far  grander  struggle  between  two  rival 
Nizams  for  the  throne  of  the  Dekhan;  and  the  attention  of 
Dupleix,  which  had  originally  centred  at  Arcot,  began  to 
alternate  like  a  pendulum  between  Arcot  and  Hyderabad, 
until  the  greater  part  of  India  to  the  south  of  the  Nerbudda 
river  was  brought  within  the  sphere  of  his  ambitious  designs. 

The  death  of  Nizam-ul-mulk  had  been  followed  by  dis- 
tractions in  his  family.  His  eldest  son  was  at  Delhi,  but 
his  second  son,  Nasir  Jung,  seized  the  treasures,  and  paci- 
fied the  army  by  a  timely  distribution  of  money.  This  prince 
had  rebelled  during  the  lifetime  of  his  father.  The  crafty 
Nizam  feigned  to  be  in  mortal  sickness ;  he  wished,  he  said, 
to  forgive  and  embrace  his  son  before  he  died.  Nasir  Jung 
was  thus  lured  to  his  father's  camp,  and  was  then  put  into 
chains.  After  the  Nizam's  death  Nasir  Jung  proved  as  un- 
scrupulous as  his  father.  He  threw  his  three  younger  broth- 
ers into  confinement,  and  carried  them  with  him  wherever 
he  moved  his  army. 

Oriental  princes  love  their  sons  while  they  are  children, 
but  grow  jealous  of  them  as  they  approach  manhood.  Sub- 
sequently they  often  have  an  affection  for  grandsons.  Nizam- 
ul-mulk  had  a  favorite  grandson  known  as  Muzaffir  Jung. 
X — 13  INDIA.  VOL.  I. 


290  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

After  his  death  this  young  prince  produced  a  will  by  which 
the  Nizam  bequeathed  his  treasures  and  dominions  to  his 
favorite  grandson.  The  will  was  probably  a  forgery ;  at  any 
rate,  Nizam  ul-mulk  could  not  bequeath  territories  which 
nominally  belonged  to  the  Great  Moghul.  To  add  to  the 
absurdity,  both  the  son  and  grandson  affected  to  receive 
delegates  from  the  Great  Moghul,  with  insignia  and  letters 
of  investiture  for  the  government  of  the  Dekhan.  Both  could 
not  have  been  real ;  probably  in  both  cases  the  delegates  were 
hired  and  the  letters  were  forged.  Such  mock  ceremonials 
were  soon  common  in  India,  and  imposed  on  no  one  but  the 
credulous  mob. 

At  this  crisis  the  grandson,  Muzaffir  Jung,  received  a 
proposal  from  Chunder  Sahib  that  they  should  unite  their 
forces,  conquer  the  Carnatic,  and  then  conquer  the  Dekhan. 
The  scheme  recommended  itself  to  all  parties,  to  Dupleix  as 
well  as  to  Muzaffir  Jung.  The  would-be  Nizam  joined  his 
forces  to  those  of  the  would-be  Nawab,  and  the  two  allies 
began  a  career  of  brilliant  successes  which  took  the  Carnatic 
by  surprise.  They  marched  through  the  passes  of  the  East- 
ern Ghats,  defeated  Anwar-ud-din  at  Amboor,  and  left  him 
dead  upon  the  field.  They  next  proceeded  to  Arcot  and  pro- 
claimed Chunder  Sahib  as  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic.  Finally 
they  went  to  Pondicherry,  and  were  received  with  open  arms 
by  Dupleix. 

Meanwhile  a  son  of  the  slain  Nawab,  named  Muhammad 
Ali,  had  fled  to  Trichinopoly.  It  was  the  last  stronghold  re- 
maining to  the  family  of  Anwar-ud-din,  and  Muhammad  Ali 
was  the  last  representative  of  the  family.  It  was  obvious  to 
Dupleix  that  the  capture  of  Trichinopoly,  and  surrender  of 
Muhammad  Ali,  would  bring  the  war  in  the  Carnatic  to  a 
triumphant  close,  and  enable  the  allies  to  bring  all  their 
forces  to  bear  against  Nasir  Jung.  Accordingly  he  urged 
Chunder  Sahib  and  Muzaffir  Jung  to  march  with  all  speed 
to  Trichinopoly,  and  waste  no  time  in  the  reduction  of  the 
place;  as  it  would  not  only  establish  Chunder  Sahib  on  the 
throne  of  the  Carnatic  without  a  rival,  but  prepare  the  way 


BRITISH    INDIA 


291 


INDIA 

in  the  time  of 

CLIVE 


292  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

for  ousting  Nasir  Jung  from  Hyderabad,  and  enthroning 
Muzaffir  Jung  as  Nizam  of  the  Dekhan  in  the  room  of  his 
uncle. 

But  Dupleix  had  to  deal  with  Asiatic  princes,  on  whom 
it  is  dangerous  to  rely.  Both  Chunder  Sahib  and  Muzaffir 
Jung  were  in  pressing  want  of  money,  but  both  were  too 
proud  to  mention  their  poverty  to  Dupleix,  lest  it  should 
lower  them  in  the  eyes  of  their  French  ally.  They  left 
Pondicherry  with  music  and  banners,  but  without  funds; 
and  they  halted  at  Tanjore  to  demand  a  subsidy  from  the 
Raja,  as  arrears  of  tribute  due  to  the  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic. 

The  Tanjore  Raja  had  been  in  mortal  fear  of  Chunder 
Sahib  ever  since  the  treacherous  capture  of  Trichinopoly  in 
1736.  He  had  rejoiced  when  his  Mahratta  brethren  carried 
off  Chunder  Sahib  as  a  prisoner  to  Satara ;  and  he  had  hast- 
ened to  form  an  alliance  with  the  English  the  moment  he 
heard  of  the  escape  and  successes  of  Chunder  Sahib.  He 
knew  that  he  was  powerless  to  contend  against  a  demand 
for  a  subsidy  which  was  backed  up  by  the  French.  He  shut 
himself  up  in  his  capital  and  prepared  to  stand  a  siege;  but 
then  lost  heart  and  offered  to  pay  a  ransom.  His  sole  object 
was  to  gain  time ;  and  he  resorted  to  all  those  evasions,  pro- 
crastinations, hesitations,  and  vexatious  alternations  of  resist- 
ance and  submission,  by  which  native  potentates  often  prolong 
a  settlement  long  after  they  are  convinced  of  the  hopelessness 
of  war.  Days  and  weeks  were  then  frittered  away  in  fixing 
the  gross  amount  of  the  subsidy,  and  the  instalments  by 
which  it  was  to  be  paid.  All  this  while  Chunder  Sahib  and 
Muzaffir  Jung  were  most  anxious  to  advance  to  Trichinopoly, 
but  could  not  move  without  money;  while  letters  from  Du- 
pleix were  constantly  reaching  the  camp,  urging  the  allies 
to  raise  the  siege  of  Tanjore  and  hasten  to  the  reduction  of 
Trichinopoly. 

At  last  the  amount  of  subsidy  was  fixed ;  also  the  amount 
of  the  first  instalment,  which  was  to  be  paid  down  on  the 
spot.  Then  the  Tanjore  Raja  had  recourse  to  other  artifices. 
He  feigned  the  utmost  anxiety  to  pay  the  money,  but  he  had 


BRITISH    INDIA  293 

no  rupees.  One  day  he  sent  a  package  of  gold  and  silver 
plate;  and  his  officers  wrangled  like  pedlers  over  the  valu- 
ation. Another  day  he  sent  a  lot  of  old  and  obsolete  coins, 
which  entailed  more  wrangling.  Lastily,  he  sent  jewels  and 
precious  stones  of  dubious  or  fluctuating  value,  which  led  to 
endless  altercations. 

Suddenly  the  uproar  ceased  and  the  Raja  was  relieved. 
During  the  quarrels  about  the  subsidy,  Nasir  Jung  had  left 
Hyderabad  with  an  overwhelming  army,  and  begun  to  in- 
vade the  Carnatic.  The  allies  were  thrown  into  a  panic. 
Muzaffir  Jung  was  induced  to  surrender  himself  to  his  uncle 
by  promises  of  pardon  and  promotion,  and  was  then  chained 
and  imprisoned,  as  his  uncle  had  been  before  him.  Chunder 
Sahib  fled  to  Pondicherry.  Nasir  Jung  entered  A  root,  and 
found,  like  Nizam-ul-mulk,  that  the  Carnatic  was  at  his  feet. 
He  appointed  Muhammad  Ali  to  be  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic, 
and  thus  seemed  to  have  brought  the  ambitious  schemes  of 
Dupleix  to  a  final  ending. 

Dupleix,  however,  was  not  a  man  to  be  cast  down  by  re- 
verses. He  was  not  a  soldier  like  Clive.  "Battles,"  he  said, 
"confused  his  genius. ' '  But  he  knew  how  to  plan  campaigns, 
and  he  was  anxious  to  intimidate  the  English  and  frighten 
Nasir  Jung.  One  detachment  of  the  French  army  surprised 
the  fort  of  Masulipatam  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kistna.  An- 
other French  army  routed  the  army  of  Muhammad  Ali  at 
Trivadi,  only  sixteen  miles  from  Fort  St.  David.  But  the 
crowning  exploit  was  carried  out  by  M.  Bussy,  a  French- 
man destined  to  win  a  name  in  India.  Bussy  captured  the 
fortress  of  Jinji,  the  strongest  in  the  Carnatic.  It  was  only 
thirty-five  miles  from  Pondicherry,  and  was  supposed  to  com- 
mand the  whole  country.  In  the  previous  century  it  had 
been  the  great  bone  of  contention  between  the  Moghul  and 
the  Mahratta.1 

1  The  fortress  of  Jinji,  formerly  spelled  Qingee,  was  a  natural  stronghold 
improved  by  art;  it  had  been  famous  for  centuries  as  the  citadel  of  the  Carnatic. 
It  consisted  of  three  precipitous  rocks  or  mountains,  from  four  hundred  to  six 
hundred  feet  in  height,  forming  very  nearly  an  equilateral  triangle.  They  were 
covered  with  redoubts,  one  above  each  other,  and  were  connected  by  lines  of 


HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

All  this  while  Nasir  Jung  was  wasting  his  time  in  a  round 
of  pleasures  at  Arcot.  He  was  unmoved  by  the  capture  of 
Masulipatam,  or  the  defeat  of  his  Nawab,  Muhammad  Ali ; 
but  the  capture  of  Jinji  opened  his  eyes  to  the  dangerous 
prowess  of  the  French.  He  offered  to  treat  with  the  French, 
but  the  demands  of  Dupleix  were  preposterous.  Muzaffir 
Jung  was  to  be  liberated ;  Chunder  Sahib  was  to  be  Nawab 
of  the  Carnatic ;  Masulipatam  was  to  be  formally  ceded  to 
the  French  East  India  Company ;  and  Jinji  was  to  be  left 
in  the  hands  of  the  French.  Nasir  Jung  was  so  enraged  at 
these  demands  that  he  marched  his  army  toward  Jinji,  with 
the  view  of  overwhelming  the  French,  and  recovering  the 
ancient  citadel  of  the  Carnatic  which  had  slipped  out  of  his 
hands. 

Dupleix  was  playing  a  deep  game,  which  requires  some 
explanation.  He  was  naturally  a  man  of  energy  and  re- 
sources, but  he  now  displayed  a  mixture  of  audacity  and 
craft  which  was  more  Oriental  than  European.  These 
Asiatic  proclivities  were  due  to  the  influence  of  his  wife; 
a  lady  of  mixed  parentage,  who  was  born  and  bred  in  India, 
and  whom  he  had  married  in  Bengal.  Madame  Dupleix  was 
familiar  with  the  native  languages,  and  well  versed  in  native 
ways.  She  carried  on  a  large  correspondence  with  person- 
ages at  different  courts ;  and  was  widely  known  in  India  as 
Jan  Begum.1 


works.  They  thus  enclosed  a  plain  in  which  the  town  was  situated.  The  night 
attack  of  Bussy  and  his  Frenchmen  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  operations  in 
the  war.  They  blew  up  a  gate  with  a  petard,  and  climbed  up  all  three  moun- 
tains at  once,  carrying  each  redoubt  sword  in  hand,  and  storming  the  fortifica- 
tions on  the  summits,  which  were  the  strongest  of  all.  The  modern  traveller, 
who  gazes  on  this  rock  fortress,  may  well  wonder  at  the  success  of  the  French; 
but  probably  no  one  was  more  astonished  than  the  French  themselves. 

1  Jeanne  was  the  Christian  name  of  Madame  Dupleix,  but  she  signed  herself 
Jan  Begum.  As  a  specimen  of  her  intrigues  it  may  suffice  to  mention  that  Jan 
Begum  carried  on  a  secret  correspondence  with  the  native  interpreter  of  the 
Madras  governor ;  and  that  this  interpreter  not  only  reported  to  her  all  that  oc- 
curred at  Fort  St.  David,  but  induced  the  native  commanders  of  the  Sepoys  in 
the  British  service  to  pledge  themselves  to  desert  to  the  French  in  the  next  gen- 
eral action.  The  plot  was  discovered  in  time ;  the  native  interpreter  was  hanged, 
the  native  commanders  were  banished  for  life  to  St.  Helena,  but  Jan  Begum  con- 
tinued to  be  as  busy  as  ever  at  Pondicherry. 


BRITISH    INDIA  296 

There  was  disaffection  and  treachery  in  the  army  of  Nasir 
Jung ;  and  Dupleix  and  his  half  native  wife  were  correspond- 
ing with  the  rebel  commanders.  A  small  ^French  force  was 
sent  out  from  Pondicherry,  nominally  to  fight  the  overwhelm- 
ing army  of  Nasir,  but  really  to  co-operate  with  the  traitors. 
Some  of  the  disaffected  officers  of  the  Nizam's  army  were 
ordered  to  charge  the  French,  but  refused  to  stir.  Nasir 
Jung  rode  up  to  the  rebels,  and  called  them  a  set  of  cowards, 
who  were  afraid  to  withstand  a  mad  attempt  of  a  few  drunken 
Europeans.  At  that  moment  he  was  shot  dead  by  a  carbine. 
His  death  was  followed  by  a  complete  revolution  of  affairs. 
Muzaffir  Jung  was  taken  out  of  his  prison,  and  hailed  by 
the  whole  army  as  Nizam  of  the  Dekhan  in  the  room  of  his 
dead  uncle. 

The  news  was  received  at  Pondicherry  with  the  wildest 
joy.  Chunder  Sahib  and  Dupleix  embraced  each  other  like 
friends  escaped  from  shipwreck.  Salutes  were  fired,  and  a 
"Te  Deum"  was  sung  in  the  cathedral.  Muzaffir  Jung  pro- 
ceeded from  Jin ji  to  Pondicherry,  and  was  solemnly  installed 
in  the  French  settlement  as  ruler  of  the  Dekhan.  Dupleix 
appeared  at  the  ceremony  in  the  dress  of  a  Muhammadan 
grandee,  and  was  the  first  to  pay  homage  to  Muzaffir  Jung. 

Meanwhile  the  gratitude  of  Muzaffir  Jung  was  unbounded. 
He  appointed  Dupleix  to  be  governor  for  the  Great  Moghul 
of  all  the  countries  to  the  south  of  the  Kistna.  He  appointed 
Chunder  Sahib  to  be  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic,  but  under  the 
authority  of  Dupleix.  He  ceded  enough  territories  to  the 
French  East  India  Company  to  yield  a  yearly  revenue  to 
the  value  of  nearly  forty  thousand  pounds  sterling.  He  dis- 
tributed money  to  the  value  of  fifty  thousand  pounds  among 
the  French  officers  and  troops,  and  presented  Dupleix  with 
a  sum  equal  to  two  hundred  thousand  pounds. 

Another  revolution  was  impending.  The  new  Nizam  re- 
turned to  the  Dekhan  with  a  French  force  under  Bussy.  The 
rebel  commanders  were  dissatisfied  with  the  rewards  they 
had  received  for  the  part  they  had  played  in  the  conspiracy 
against  Nasir  Jung.  Again  they  broke  out  in  tumult.  It 


296  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

was  suppressed  by  the  fire  of  the  French  artillery,  bat  Mu- 
zaffir  Jung  pursued  the  fugitives,  and  received  a  mortal 
stroke  from  a  javelin. 

The  sudden  death  of  the  new  Nizam  threw  the  whole 
camp  into  horrible  confusion.  The  army  was  greatly  in 
arrears  of  pay.  The  grandees  were  afraid  that  the  troops 
would  break  out  in  mutiny  and  plunder.  The  French  would 
have  fared  worse  than  all,  for  the  jealousy  of  their  influence 
was  universal.  But  the  coolness  of  Bussy  averted  the  crisis. 
The  three  younger  brothers  of  Nasir  Jung  were  still  in  con- 
finement. Bussy  released  the  eldest  and  proclaimed  him 
ruler  of  the  Dekhan  under  the  name  of  Salabut  Jung,  amid 
the  general  acclamations  of  the  whole  army. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  early  part  of  1751. 
Dupleix  had  realized  his  wildest  dreams  of  French  suprem- 
acy in  India.  The  Nizam  and  the  Nawab  owed  their  thrones 
to  Dupleix  and  his  Frenchmen.  Not  a  single  rival  remained 
to  the  French  candidates  except  Muhammad  Ali,  who  had 
been  appointed  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic  by  Nasir  Jung ;  and 
Muhammad  Ali  was  closely  besieged  by  Chunder  Sahib 
and  the  French  at  Trichinopoly,  and  was  already  offering 
terms. 

Meanwhile  the  English  at  Madras  and  Fort  St.  David 
had  been  utterly  bewildered  by  revolutions  which  were  con- 
trary to  the  precedents  and  institutions  of  the  Moghul  em- 
pire. Muhammad  Ali  had  been  appointed  Nawab  of  the 
Carnatic  by  the  Nizam;  and  the  English  had  recognized 
and  supported  him  as  the  legitimate  Nawab,  and  sent  small 
detachments  from  time  to  time  to  Trichinopoly.  But  they 
were  afraid  of  being  drawn  into  hostilities  with  the  French, 
in  violation  of  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  They  had  even 
allowed  Admiral  Boscawen  and  Major  Lawrence  to  return 
to  England  on  the  ground  that  the  war  with  France  was 
over.  In  a  word,  they  seemed  resigned  to  a  fate  which  they 
could  not  avert,  and  anxiously  awaited  fresh  instructions 
from  the  Directors  in  England. 

The  news  that  Muhammad  Ali  was  capitulating  with 


BRITISH    INDIA  5897 

Dupleix  aroused  the  English  from  their  torpor.  The  in- 
stinct of  self-preservation  drove  them  to  action.  If  Mu- 
hammad Ali  submitted  to  the  French,  the  ruin  of  Madras 
and  Fort  St.  David  was  assured;  for  Dupleix  could  issue 
his  own  orders  for  their  destruction  through  his  creature, 
Chunder  Sahib.  Accordingly,  the  English  sent  larger  de- 
tachments to  Trichinopoly,  and  appointed  Captain  Cope, 
and  afterward  Captain  De  Gingen,  to  take  the  command. 

The  military  operations  at  Trichinopoly  are  forgotten 
now.  Fighting  the  French  is  no  longer  a  master  passion 
with  the  English  nation ;  and  the  exploits  of  Cope,  De  Gin- 
gen,  and  Dalton,  with  absurdly  small  parties  of  English 
soldiers,  have  died  out  of  the  national  memory.  But  Clive, 
who  was  now  a  captain,  performed  a  feat  which  thrilled 
through  the  British  empire.  He  had  gone  to  Trichinopoly, 
and  studied  the  whole  situation.  The  succession  of  the 
Nizams  of  the  Dekhan  was  practically  settled  in  favor  of 
the  French.  Nasir  Jung  and  Muzaffir  Jung  had  both  been 
slain;  and  Salabut  Jung  had  been  placed  by  Bussy  on  the 
throne  at  Hyderabad.  The  question  as  regards  the  succes- 
sion of  a  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic  turned  upon  the  fate  of 
Trichinopoly.  If  Chunder  Sahib,  the  French  Nawab,  cap- 
tured Trichinopoly,  the  English  would  be  driven  out  of  the 
Carnatic.  If  Muhammad  Ali,  the  English  Nawab,  held  out 
at  Trichinopoly,  he  might  yet  be  restored  to  the  throne  of 
his  father.  Anwar-ud-din,  and  the  English  settlements  would 
be  saved  from  destruction. 

The  English  were  terribly  outnumbered  at  Trichinopoly. 
The  Hindu  Rajas,  especially  Mysore  and  Tanjore,  were 
holding  aloof  from  the  contest ;  they  hated  Chunder  Sahib, 
but  they  would  not  commit  themselves  by  sending  forces  to 
help  Muhammad  Ali.  In  a  word,  they  were  trembling 
in  the  balance  between  the  English  and  French;  waiting 
to  see  who  would  get  the  upper  hand  in  order  that  they 
might  join  the  winning  side. 

The  relief  of  Trichinopoly  was  of  the  first  importance 
to  the  English ;  it  was  almost  a  question  of  life  or  death. 


298  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

The  problem  was  solved  by  Captain  Olive.  In  July,  1751, 
Captain  Clive  returned  from  Trichinopoly  to  Madras.  The 
road  runs  due  north  to  Arcot,  a  distance  of  some  hundred 
and  eighty  miles  from  Trichinopoly;  it  then  runs  eastward 
from  Arcot  to  Madras,  a  distance  of  scarcely  seventy  miles. 
During  the  march,  Captain  Clive  saw  that  the  garrisons  in 
the  Carnatic,  and  especially  the  force  at  Arcot,  had  been 
drawn  away  to  the  siege  of  Trichionopoly ;  that  Arcot  was 
consequently  open  to  attack;  and  that  the  capture  of  Arcot 
might  prove  the  salvation  of  Trichinopoly.  On  reaching- 
Madras  he  proposed  sending  an  expedition  against  Arcot. 
He  urged  that  the  capture  of  the  capital  of  the  Carnatic  in 
the  name  of  Muhammad  AH  would  revive  the  spirits  of  the 
Hindu  Rajas,  and  induce  them  to  rally  round  his  standard 
at  Trichinopoly.  At  the  same  time  it  would  weaken  the 
besieging  force  at  Trichinopoly,  by  compelling  Chunder 
Sahib  and  the  French  to  send  a  large  detachment  far  away 
to  the  northward  for  the  recovery  of  Arcot. 

The  proposition  was  approved,  and  the  expedition  from 
Madras  to  Arcot  proved  to  be  the  turning-point  in  the  war. 
The  detachment  consisted  of  only  two  hundred  Europeans 
and  three  hundred  sepoys.  Captain  Clive  took  the  com- 
mand, and  had  eight  European  officers  under  him;  but  of 
these  only  two  had  been  in  action,  while  four  of  the  re- 
mainder were  commercial  clerks  who  had  been  fired  by  his 
example  to  draw  the  sword. 

With  this  handful  of  men,  and  three  field-pieces  for  artil- 
lery, Clive  marched  from  Madras.  On  the  way  he  heard 
that  the  fort  of  Arcot  was  garrisoned  by  eleven  hundred 
men,  or  more  than  double  his  force;  and  he  wrote  back  to 
Madras  for  two  eighteen-pounders.  Spies  from  Arcot  soon 
announced  his  approach  to  the  garrison.  They  reported  that 
the  English  had  marched  through  a  storm  of  thunder,  light- 
ning, and  rain  without  the  slightest  concern.  The  garrison 
at  Arcot  was  so  frightened  at  this  astounding  audacity  that 
they  fled  from  the  fort  and  encamped  at  a  distance,  leaving 
fort  and  town  open  to  the  invaders. 


BRITISH    INDIA  299 

The  English  force  entered  the  city,  and  took  possession 
of  the  fort,  while  a  hundred  thousand  spectators  looked 
helplessly  on.  Olive  found  lead,  gunpowder,  and  eight 
pieces  of  cannon.  He  stored  the  fort  with  provisions  suf- 
ficient to  stand  a  siege.  Meanwhile  the  fugitive  garri- 
son from  Arcot  was  reinforced  by  large  numbers,  and 
threatened  to  storm  the  fort;  but  were  dispersed  by  the 
sallies  of  Olive. 

The  forecast  of  Olive  was  fulfilled  to  the  letter.  Chunder 
Sahib  and  the  French  were  taken  aback  by  the  English  occu- 
pation of  Arcot ;  and  were  compelled  to  divide  their  besieg- 
ing force  at  Trichinopoly  by  sending  an  overwhelming  native 
army,  accompanied  by  a  hundred  and  fifty  Europeans,  for 
the  recovery  of  Arcot.  For  the  space  of  fifty  days  Olive  not 
only  repulsed  all  attacks,  but  filled  the  enemy  with  constant 
alarm.  Bribes  were  offered  him  in  vain.  His  exploits 
created  such  an  impression  on  the  Hindus  that  a  body  of 
Mahrattas  joined  him  from  Mysore.  Other  reinforcements 
were  approaching  from  Madras,  when  the  enemy  threw  all 
its  force  into  one  final  attack.  The  assault  was  made  at 
early  morning  on  the  festival  of  the  Muharram.  The  Mu- 
hammadan  army  was  drunk  with  enthusiasm  and  bhang, 
and  rushed  on  to  the  trenches  with  their  ladders  in  their 
hands.  But  Olive  had  been  prepared  for  the  attack  and 
repulsed  it  at  all  points,  until  the  energy  of  the  storming 
parties  was  exhausted  and  the  fire  of  musketry  and  cannon 
died  away.  At  night  the  enemy  raised  the  siege  and  fled  in 
confusion. 

Captain  Olive  then  took  the  field,  and  not  only  routed 
and  dispersed  the  retreating  enemy,  but  captured  several 
strongholds  in  the  Carnatic  in  behalf  of  Muhammad  Ali. 
In  January,  1752,  the  enemy  tried  to  create  a  diversion  by 
invading  the  Company's  territory  of  Poonamallee,  and  plun- 
dering the  country-houses  of  the  English  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Madras.  Clive  again  attacked  and  defeated  them,  but 
was  suddenly  recalled  to  Fort  St.  David.  His  career  of 
individual  conquest  had  been  brought  to  a  close.  In  March, 


300  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

1752,  Major  Lawrence  returned  from  England  and  resumed 
the  command  of  all  the  Company's  forces. 

All  this  while  Muhammad  Ali  and  the  English  still  held 
out  at  Trichinopoly  against  Chunder  Sahib  and  the  French. 
Accordingly  Major  Lawrence  marched  to  Trichinopoly  with 
reinforcements  for  the  besieged,  while  Clive  served  under 
him  as  the  second  in  command.  The  tide  of  fortune  had 
turned  in  favor  of  Muhammad  Ali,  and  there  was  conse- 
quently no  lack  of  native  allies.  One  force  had  already 
come  from  Tan j  ore  to  assist  in  the  defence  of  Trichinopoly. 
A  still  larger  army  was  brought  by  the  regent  of  Mysore, 
who  had  also  hired  a  body  of  Mahrattas  under  Morari  Rao. 1 
Other  bands  of  barbarians  were  brought  up  from  the  southern 
jungles  by  a  chief  known  as  Tondiman  Poligar.  But  Major 
Lawrence  was  worried  by  his  native  allies.  Splendid  oppor- 
tunities were  lost  because  the  stars  were  not  favorable;  and 
he  often  found  that  he  must  either  act  alone,  or  be  tied  down 
by  feasts  or  fasts,  or  by  lucky  or  unlucky  days. 

Still  the  operations  of  the  English  under  Lawrence  and 
Clive  were  crowned  with  success.  In  May,  1752,  Chunder 
Sahib  surrendered  himself  a  prisoner  to  the  Tanjore  general, 
by  whom  he  was  barbarously  murdered.  At  the  same  time 
the  French  force  at  Trichinopoly  capitulated.  The  officers 
gave  their  parole  not  to  serve  against  Muhammad  Ali  or  his 
allies ;  while  the  private  soldiers,  to  the  number  of  four  hun- 
dred, were  sent  to  Fort  St.  David  as  prisoners. 

The  year  1752  thus  saw  the  English  triumphant  at  Trich- 
inopoly. French  interests  seemed  to  be  ruined.  Major  Law- 
rence prepared  to  leave  Trichinopoly  with  his  native  allies; 
to  recover  the  fortresses  in  the  Carnatic  which  had  not  been 
surrendered ;  and  to  conduct  Muhammad  Ali  to  Arcot,  and 
install  him  as  Nawab. 

At  this  crisis  a  dangerous  quarrel,  which  must  have  been 


1  The  Raja  of  Mysore  was  at  this  time  an  infant,  and  the  country  was  gov- 
erned by  his  uncle  Nunjiraj  as  regent  during  his  minority.  It  was  at  this  period 
that  Hyder  Naik,  the  founder  of  the  Muhammadan  kingdom  of  Mysore,  was 
rising  to  power  as  an  officer  in  the  service  of  Nunjiraj. 


BRITISH    INDLti  301 

secretly  brewing  for  weeks,  suddenly  broke  out  between  the 
native  allies.  Major  Lawrence  discovered,  to  his  utter  sur- 
prise and  discomfiture,  that  Muhammad  Ali  had  bought  the 
help  of  Mysore  by  promising  to  make  over  Trichinopoly  to 
the  regent;  and  the  Mysore  regent  refused  to  stir  from 
Trichinopoly,  or  to  take  any  part  in  the  restoration  of  Mu- 
hammad Ali  to  the  throne  of  the  Carnatic,  until  the  city 
of  Trichinopoly  was  placed  in  his  possession. 

The  dispute  about  Trichinopoly  has  long  been  obsolete, 
but  in  1752  it  involved  serious  consequences.  It  was  the 
key  to  the  Hindu  Carnatic,  and  as  such  had  long  been  cov- 
eted by  successive  Nawabs;  and  its  occupation  by  Mysore, 
or  the  Mahrattas,  or  by  any  other  Hindu  power,  would  have 
been  justly  regarded  as  a  perpetual  menace  to  the  Nawab. 

Major  Lawrence  tried  to  effect  a  compromise,  but  soon 
found  that  it  was  impossible.  Muhammad  Ali  was  full  of 
excuses  and  evasions.  He  confessed  that  he  had  pledged 
himself  to  make  over  Trichinopoly;  but  he  urged  that  the 
promise  had  been  extorted  from  him  by  his  extreme  distress, 
and  that  the  Mysore  regent  was  fully  aware  that  he  could 
not  fulfil  it.  Trichinopoly,  he  said,  belonged  to  the  Great 
Moghul;  and  if  it  was  given  to  a  Hindu  Raja,  the  Great 
Moghul  would  make  war,  not  only  upon  him,  but  upon  his 
English  allies.  He  privately  proposed  to  Major  Lawrence 
to  amuse  the  regent  by  promising  to  deliver  up  Trichinopoly 
at  the  end  of  two  months.  Meanwhile,  he  added,  he  hoped 
to  collect  enough  arrears  of  revenue  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  the  regent,  and  prevent  the  necessity  of  parting  with 
Trichinopoly. 

Major  Lawrence  thus  found  himself  involved  in  a  web 
of  deceit  and  intrigue  which  rendered  action  impracticable. 
The  Mysore  regent  professed  himself  willing  to  accept  pay- 
ment of  his  expenses  in  lieu  of  Trichinopoly,  if  the  money 
was  paid  at  once ;  but  he  demanded  such  an  enormous  sum 
that  money  was  out  of  the  question.  It  was  thought -that 
Morari  Rao  could  mediate  between  the  two  parties,  but  he 
made  matters  worse.  Publicly  he  decided  that  the  Nawab 


302  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

was  to  make  over  Trichinopoly  at  the  end  of  two  months. 
Privately  he  counselled  the  Nawab  not  to  surrender  Trichi- 
nopoly at  all.  Privately  also  he  counselled  the  Mysore  regent 
to  insist  on  the  immediate  surrender  of  the  city  under  pain 
of  making  war  on  the  Nawab,  or  deserting  to  the  French. 
By  so  doing  the  wily  Mahratta  secretly  made  friends  with 
both  sides,  and  obtained  large  presents  from  both  the  Nawab 
and  the  regent,  who  were  each  anxious  for  his  support.  At 
the  same  time  Morari  Rao  fomented  the  rupture  between  the 
two,  and  tried  to  cajole  the  Nawab  into  allowing  the  Mah- 
ratta troops  to  hold  Trichinopoly  during  the  interval,  on  the 
treacherous  understanding  that  at  the  end  of  the  two  months 
he  was  not  to  make  it  over  to  the  Mysore  regent,  but  to  give 
it  back  to  Muhammad  Ali.  Had  Morari  Rao  succeeded  in 
getting  inside  Trichinopoly  he  would  undoubtedly  have  kept 
possession  of  the  place,  just  as  Chunder  Sahib  had  done  some 
fifteen  years  before. 

This  wretched  quarrel  robbed  the  English  of  all  the 
pleasure  of  their  triumph.  Moreover,  it  was  followed  by 
plots  and  intrigues  for  the  seizure  of  Trichiuopoly,  which 
volumes  would  fail  to  describe.  Meanwhile  the  fortunes  of 
the  French  were  becoming  brilliant  in  the  Dekhan.  Dupleix 
and  his  wife  took  advantage  of  these  successes  to  send  letters 
and  presents  to  all  parties  at  Trichinopoly,  representing  that 
the  English  were  a  plodding  mercantile  people,  unacquainted 
with  war,  and  unable  to  oppose  the  French,  and  who  owed 
all  their  victories  to  the  valor  and  activity  of  the  Mahratta 
cavalry.  The  consequence  was  that  the  Mysore  regent  went 
over  to  the  French  together  with  the  Mahrattas;  while  the 
contingents  of  the  Tan j ore  Raja  and  Tondiman  Poligar 
returned  to  their  own  homes,  incensed  alike  against  the 
Nawab  and  the  Mysore  regent,  and  resolved  to  do  nothing 
more  until  they  could  find  whether  the  English  or  French 
were  likely  to  win  the  day. 

All  this  while  Dupleix  had  never  despaired.  The  death 
of  Chunder  Sahib,  and  surrender  of  the  French  force  at 
Trichinopoly,  had  excited  consternation  at  Pondicherry. 


BRITISH   INDIA  303 

But  Bussy's  successes  in  the  Dekhan  more  than  counter- 
balanced the  disasters  in  the  Carnatic.  Salabut  Jung  owed 
his  throne  to  the  French ;  and  would  have  been  deprived  of 
it  at  any  moment  by  one  rival  or  another,  but  for  the  sup- 
port of  Bussy  and  the  French  army.  Accordingly  he  ceded 
a  large  and  valuable  territory  on  the  Coromandel  coast  for 
the  permanent  maintenance  of  the  French  forces.  The 
French  thus  acquired  a  larger  territory  in  India  than  had 
ever  before  been  possessed  by  any  European  power,  not  ex- 
cepting the  Portuguese.  It  stretched  along  six  hundred 
miles  of  seaboard,  from  the  Carnatic  frontier  at  the  river 
Gundlacama,  northward  to  the  pagoda  of  Jagganath.  It 
yielded  a  yearly  revenue  of  more  than  half  a  million  sterling ; 
and  possessed  commercial  advantages  which  were  vastly  im- 
proved by  the  possession  of  the  port  of  Masulipatam.  This 
territory  was  afterward  known  as  the  Northern  Circars. 

At  the  same  tune  Dupleix  professed  to  have  been  con- 
firmed by  Salabut  Jung  in  the  post  of  ruler  of  all  India  to 
the  south  of  the  Kistna.  He  even  feigned  to  have  received 
insignia  and  letters  of  investiture  from  the  Great  Moghul. 
By  virtue  of  this  authority  he  arrogated  to  himself  all  the 
powers  of  a  Nawab. 

In  1753  the  English  were  anxious  for .  a  peace.  They 
were  worn  out  by  the  expense  of  a  war  which  was  in  reality 
a  national  affair,  and  ought  not  to  have  fallen  on  the  East 
India  Company.  Captain  Clive  had  returned  to  England 
on  the  score  of  ill-health;  and  the  operations  of  Lawrence 
were  indecisive.  The  English  were  willing  to  leave  the 
French  in  possession  of  the  Northern  Circars,  and  to  ac- 
knowledge Salabut  Jung  as  Nizam  of  the  Dekhan ;  but  they 
required  the  French  to  acknowledge  Muhammad  Ali  as 
Nawab  of  the  Carnatic.  But  Dupleix  was  impracticable, 
and  rejected  the  offer  with  disdain.  He  claimed  to  be 
Nawab  of  the  Carnatic,  and  unless  his  authority  as  Nawab 
was  recognized  by  the  English  he  would  make  no  terms 
whatever. 

In  this  dilemma  the  Court  of  Directors  in  London  called 


304  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

on  the  British  ministry  to  put  an  end  to  the  war  in  the  Car- 
natic,  or  to  carry  it  on  at  the  charge  of  the  British  nation. 
The  question  had  become  of  vital  importance.  Great  Brit- 
ain and  France  were  at  peace  in  Europe,  and  had  been  at 
peace  ever  since  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  1748.  The 
war  between  the  two  nations  in  the  Carnatic  was  thus  not 
only  an  anomaly,  but  a  complication  which  few  in  Europe 
could  comprehend.  London  and  Paris  were  confused  by 
dynastic  stories  of  rival  Nawabs  and  rival  Nizams  setting  the 
Great  Moghul  at  defiance,  and  fighting  for  the  mastery  with 
the  English  Company  on  one  side  and  the  French  Company 
on  the  other.  Meanwhile  the  Directors  of  both  Companies 
found  themselves  drawn  into  hopeless  contests,  which  ex- 
hausted their  treasuries  and  obstructed  their  trade. 

Under  such  circumstances  all  parties  began  to  throw  the 
blame  upon  Dupleix.  The  English  charged  him  with  begin- 
ning the  war  by  the  liberation  of  Chunder  Sahib  from  his 
Mahratta  prison  at  Satara.  The  French  denounced  his  am- 
bitious schemes  for  his  own  aggrandizement,  which  devoured 
the  profits  of  the  French  East  India  Company  without  adding 
to  the  glory  of  the  French  nation.  Dupleix  was  sacrificed  to 
the  necessities  of  both  nations,  to  prevent  a  war  between 
Great  Britain  and  France,  and  to  enable  the  English  and 
French  Companies  to  escape  from  political  responsibilities 
which  were  destructive  to  the  interests  of  trade. 

The  finale  is  soon  told.  A  French  commissary  was  sent 
to  Pondicherry  with  full  powers  to  conclude  a  peace  with  the 
English  authorities  at  Madras.  Both  sides  pledged  them- 
selves for  the  future  to  renounce  all  native  government  and 
dignity,  and  to  abandon  all  interference  with  native  powers. 
The  French  also  agreed  to  relinquish  all  territories  they  had 
acquired  in  excess  of  those  acquired  by  the  English.  But 
these  conditions  were  never  carried  out.  Dupleix,  however, 
was  removed  from  the  government  of  Pondicherry,  and  re- 
turned to  France  a  ruined  and  broken-hearted  man.1 

1  Dupleix  lived  for  nine  years  longer.     He  died  at  Paris  in  the  utmost  pov- 
erty, on  the  10th  of  November,  1764. 


BRITISH   INDIA  305 

The  treaty  was  signed  at  Pondicherry  in  January,  1755. 
It  was  only  provisional,  and  awaited  the  confirmation  of  the 
English  and  French  governments  in  Europe ;  and  within  eigh- 
teen months  it  was  cast  to  the  winds.  The  English  excited 
the  jealousy  of  the  French  by  helping  Muhammad  Ali  to 
establish  his  authority  in  the  Carnatic  over  rebellious  Poli- 
gars.  At  the  same  time  the  French  occupation  of  the  North- 
ern Circars,  and  the  continued  presence  of  Bussy  and  his 
forces  in  the  Dekhan,  excited  the  bitterest  animosity  of  the 
English. 

Meanwhile  Clive,  who  had  embarked  for  England  in 
1753  on  the  score  of  ill-health,  had  returned  to  Bombay 
with  the  commission  of  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  service 
of  the  Crown.  He  was  to  have  led  a  European  force  from 
Bombay  toward  Hyderabad,  with  the  view  of  co-operating 
with  the  Peishwa  of  the  Mahrattas  against  the  Nizam,  and 
compelling  Salabut  Jung  to  dismiss  Bussy  and  his  French- 
men. But  the  expedition  was  stopped  by  the  treaty  of  Pon- 
dicherry. Accordingly  he  joined  the  fleet  of  Admiral  Wat- 
son in  an  expedition  against  a  noted  pirate  named  Angria. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the 
Moghul  power  was  beginning  to  decline,  a  rebel  of  the  name 
of  Angria  founded  a  piratical  empire  on  the  Malabar  coast 
between  Bombay  and  Goa.  During  the  fifty  years  which 
followed,  the  name  of  Angria  had  been  as  great  a  terror  on 
the  sea  as  that  of  Sivaji  had  been  on  land.  A  succession  of 
Angrias  had  pushed  their  aggressions  along  the  Mahratta 
coast,  until  they  possessed  a  seaboard  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  in  length,  with  a  fort  at  every  creek.  Their 
fleets  consisted  of  fast-sailing  vessels  of  small  burden,  and 
rowing-boats  of  forty  or  fifty  oars,  armed  with  guns  and 
crowded  with  men.  No  vessel  could  pass  this  coast  with- 
out paying  chout  for  a  pass  from  Angria,  or  running  the 
chance  of  capture.  The  East  India  Company  alone  ex- 
pended fifty  thousand  pounds  yearly  on  the  maintenance 
of  an  armed  convoy  for  the  protection  of  their  merchant 
ships  against  these  dangerous  corsairs. 


306  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

The  capital  of  Angria  was  at  Gheria,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  be  another  Gibraltar,  but  Olive  and  Watson  made 
short  work  of  capturing  it.  The  place  was  bombarded  and 
stormed  in  February,  1756,  and  its  fortifications  and  ship- 
ping were  destroyed.  Angria's  people  were  so  alarmed  that 
they  surrendered  all  their  other  forts  to  the  Mahrattas  with- 
out resistance,  and  abandoned  most  of  their  territory. 

Olive  and  Watson  next  proceeded  to  Madras.  Meanwhile 
there  had  been  a  rupture  between  Salabut  Jung  and  Bussy, 
brought  about  by  a  powerful  Muhammadan  party  at  the 
court  of  Hyderabad.  In  July,  1756,  Bussy  marched  his 
force  to  Hyderabad,  and  took  up  a  strong  position;  while 
Salabut  Jung  sent  urgent  messages  to  Madras  imploring 
the  help  of  the  English  against  the  French. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  acceptable  to  the  English 
authorities.  All  mention  of  the  Dekhan  and  the  Nizam  had 
been  intentionally  excluded  from  the  treaty  of  Pondicherry. 
At  the  same  time  Europe  was  on  the  eve  of  the  "Seven 
Years'  War,"  and  a  declaration  of  hostilities  between  Great 
Britain  and  France  was  expected  to  arrive  in  India  by  every 
ship.  Accordingly,  an  English  force  was  prepared  to  take 
the  field  for  the  support  of  Salabut  Jung  against  the  French ; 
but  suddenly  the  march  was  countermanded.  In  August 
terrible  news  arrived  from  Bengal.  Calcutta  had  been  cap- 
tured by  the  Nawab  of  Bengal,  Behar, '  and  Orissa,  and  a 
hundred  and  twenty-three  English  prisoners  had  been  stifled 
to  death  in  the  Black  Hole. 


1  Tn  the  previous  chapters  Behar  has  been  spelled  "Bihar"  in  conformity 
•with  the  spelling  ordered  by  the  British  government.  But  in  dealing  with  the 
history  of  British  India,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  change  the  spelling  of  a  geo- 
graphical term  which  has  been  in  general  use  for  more  than  a  century. 


BRITISH   INDIA  307 


CHAPTER    II 
ENGLISH   IN  BENGAL 

A.D.   1700  TO  1761 

THE  position  of  the  English  in  Calcutta  during  the 
early  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  bore  a  general 
resemblance  to  that  of  the  English  at  Madras.  They 
had  a  governor  and  council,  and  a  mayor's  court.  They  had 
an  English  officer,  who  collected  revenue  and  administered 
justice  among  their  native  subjects  under  the  name  of 
Zemindar.  They  had  a  head  policeman,  who  kept  the 
peace  by  day  and  night,  under  the  name  of  Kotwal.  They 
had  Dutch  and  French  neighbors,  whose  factories  were  situ- 
ated some  twenty  miles  off  at  Chinsura  and  Chandernagore. 
They  paid  rent  and  customs  to  the  Moghul  officer,  who  com- 
manded the  surrounding  district  under  the  name  of  Foujdar, 
and  made  Hughli  his  headquarters.1 

The  Nawab  of  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa,  was  a  grandee 
of  the  first  water,  who  kept  his  court  at  Murshedabad,  about 
a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  to  the  north  of  Calcutta.  The 
English  had  few  transactions  with  the  great  man ;  they  gen- 
erally carried  on  all  their  political  negotiations  through  the 
Moghul  commander  at  Hughli. 

The  English  at  Calcutta  knew  more  of  the  interior  than 
the  English  at  Madras.  There  was  no  waterway  at  Madras 
to  open  up  the  country ;  and  no  great  roads  in  the  Peninsula 
like  those  which  traversed  Hindustan  and  the  Dekhan.  Be- 
fore the  war,  Arcot  was  as  remote  at  Delhi,  while  Madura 


1  The  Dutch  factory  at  Chinsura,  the  French  factory  at  Chandernagore,  and 
the  Moghul  town  of  Hughli,  are  some  three  or  four  miles  distant  from  each  other. 


308  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

was  a  mystery  like  Pekin  or  Timbuctoo.  But  the  position 
of  the  English  at  Calcutta  was  altogether  different,  for  they 
had  established  factories  at  a  considerable  distance  inland. 
On  the  north  they  had  a  factory  at  Cossimbazar,  the  trading 
suburb  of  Murshedabad.  On  the  east  they  had  a  factory  at 
Dacca,  near  the  Brahmaputra  river,  whence  they  procured 
Dacca  muslins.  On  the  west  they  had  the  great  waterway 
of  the  Ganges,  and  had  established  a  factory  at  Patna,  four 
hundred  miles  from  Calcutta,  for  the  purchase  of  saltpetre, 
raw  silk,  and  opium. 

The  old  Nawabs  of  Bengal  were  thus  better  known  to  the 
English  than  the  Nawabs  of  the  Carnatic.  The  founder  of 
the  first  hereditary  dynasty  was  Murshed  Kuli  Khan,  a  man 
who  flourished  between  1700  and  1725,  and  was  a  type  of 
the  rulers  formed  in  the  school  of  Aurangzeb.  He  rose 
from  some  minor  post  to  be  Nawab  of  the  three  provinces 
of  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa;  a  territory  extending  north 
and  south  from  the  mountains  of  Nipal  to  the  jungles  of 
Gondwana,  and  east  and  west  from  the  river  Brahmaputra 
and  Bay  of  Bengal  to  the  little  river  Carumnassa.1  He 
moved  his  capital  from  Dacca  to  Murshedabad,  which  was 
so  called  after  his  own  name.9 

The  secret  of  the  rise  of  Murshed  Kuli  Khan  lay  in  his 
sending  a  large  yearly  tribute  to  the  imperial  treasury  at 
Delhi,  together  with  large  presents  for  ministers,  favorites, 
and  influential  grandees.  In  return  he  was  allowed  to  fill 
the  two  posts  of  Nawab  and  Dewan;  in  other  words,  to 
command  the  three  provinces  while  acting  as  accountant- 
general  for  the  Great  Moghul.  He  was  thus  necessarily  a 
strict  financier,  and  many  stories  are  told  by  native  writers 
of  his  cruelty  and  oppression.  He  imprisoned  the  leading 


1  The  Carumnassa  is  an  insignificant   stream,  flowing  into  the  Jumna  near 
Buxar,  which  is  not  always  shown  in  the  map.     Its  importance  as  a  frontier 
between  Behar  and  the  territory  of  Benares  continued  until  the  administration 
of  Warren  Hastings,  when  Benares  was  annexed  to  British  territory. 

2  Murshed  Kuli  Khan  is  known  in  some  histories  by  the  name  of  Jafir  Khan, 
and  must  be  distinguished  from  the  Nawab  Mir  Jafir,  who  appears  in  the  later 
history. 


BRITISH    INDIA  309 

landholders,  known  as  Zemindars  and  Rajas,  and  appointed 
Bengali  Hindus  of  his  own  selection  to  collect  the  rents  from 
the  farmers.  He  placed  other  Zemindars  on  subsistence  al- 
lowances, while  his  Bengali  officers,  known  as  Aumils,  col- 
lected the  rents  in  like  manner.  He  remeasured  estates,  and 
brought  fallow  and  waste  lands  under  cultivation  by  making 
advances  to  the  lower  class  of  husbandmen.  In  a  word,  he 
dispossessed  most  of  the  Zemindars  from  their  holdings,  ex- 
cept a  few  whom  he  ventured  to  trust,  and  a  few  powerful 
Rajas,  such  as  Birbhum  and  Kishenghur,  who  were  able  to 
resent  or  defy  any  interference  with  their  hereditary  estates 
or  territories. 

Murshed  Kuli  Khan,  like  all  the  Moghul  officers  of  the 
school  of  Aurangzeb,  was  very  harsh  toward  Hindus.  He 
allowed  no  Hindus,  not  even  Zemindars  or  Rajas,  to  sit  or 
speak  to  each  other  in  his  presence.  He  prohibited  even  the 
wealthiest  Hindus  from  riding  in  a  palanquin,  and  required 
them  to  use  inferior  conveyances.  He  preferred  Bengali 
Hindus  to  collect  the  revenue  because  they  were  more  amen- 
able to  threats  and  punishments,  and  were  too  timid  to  rebel 
or  plot  against  him.  It  was  a  common  saying  that  the  Mu- 
hammadans  squandered  their  ill-gotten  gains  on  pomp  and 
pleasure,  and  left  no  wealth  to  be  confiscated;  while  the 
Hindus  hoarded  their  gains,  and  then,  like  sponges,  could 
be  squeezed  of  all  their  riches.  If  a  district  collector  was 
in  arrears  the  Hindu  defaulter  was  tormented,  bastinadoed, 
hung  up  by  the  feet,  placed  in  the  hot  sun,  or  subjected  to 
some  other  exquisite  torture.  But  if  there  was  any  fraud, 
or  any  failure  to  make  good  a  deficiency,  the  Hindu  culprit 
was  compelled  to  turn  Muhammadan,  together  with  his  wife 
and  family.1 

Murshed  Kuli  Khan  had  no  son.  He  had  given  a  daugh- 
ter in  marriage  to  an  officer  named  Shuja  Khan,  who  was 
deputy-governor  of  Orissa.  But  Shuja  Kban  was  so  utterly 


1  The  original  authorities  for  these  statements  will  be  found  translated  in 
Stewart's  History  of  Bengal. 


310  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

bad  and  profligate  that  his  wife  left  him  in  Orissa  and  went 
back  to  her  father  at  Murshedabad,  accompanied  by  a  son 
named  Sarfaraz  Khan. 

The  old  Nawab  hated  his  son-in-law  but  took  a  great 
liking  to  his  grandson.  He  set  aside  Shuja  Khan  and  used 
all  his  influence  at  Delhi  to  secure  the  appointment  of  his 
grandson,  Sarfaraz,  as  his  heir  and  successor  to  the  Nawab- 
ship  of  the  three  provinces  of  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa. 
But  he  died  in  1725,  before  his  intentions  were  carried  into 
effect,  and  thus  left  the  throne  at  Murshedabad  to  be  a  bone 
of  contention  between  a  father  and  a  son. 

Meantime  Shuja  Khan,  by  means  of  lavish  presents  at 
Delhi,  had  procured  the  insignia  and  letters  of  investiture 
from  Delhi  for  his  own  appointment  as  Nawab  of  the  three 
provinces;  and  shortly  after  the  death  of  his  father-in-law 
he  suddenly  produced  them  at  the  city  of  Murshedabad,  and 
was  at  once  proclaimed  successor  to  the  throne.  His  son, 
Sarfaraz  Khan,  was  totally  ignorant  of  his  father's  design. 
He  was  sitting  at  a  country  house  near  the  city,  hourly  ex- 
pecting the  arrival  of  his  own  credentials  from  Delhi,  when 
he  suddenly  heard  the  fire  of  salutes  and  roll  of  kettle-drums 
at  the  palace.  He  had  been  outwitted  by  his  father,  but 
there  was  no  redress.  He  submitted  to  his  fate,  and  set  off 
to  offer  the  customary  present  and  congratulations  to  the 
new  Nawab. 

Shuja  Khan  was  a  good-natured  man  who  cared  for  noth- 
ing but  pleasure.  He  released  all  the  imprisoned  Zemindars 
and  Rajas,  and  thereby  made  himself  popular.  But  he  had 
two  favorites,  named  Haji  Ahmad  and  Alivardi  Khan.  The 
former,  by  secret  services  of  a  questionable  character,  ob- 
tained the  post  of  minister  and  remained  at  Murshedabad. 
His  brother,  Alivardi  Khan,  a  man  of  bravery  and  audacity, 
was  appointed  deputy-governor  of  Behar,  and  left  Murshed- 
abad and  took  up  his  quarters  at  Patna. 

In  Behar,  Alivardi  Khan  devoted  himself  to  the  reduc- 
tion of  all  the  Hindu  Rajas  under  his  government.  This  he 
accomplished  by  the  most  consummate  treachery  and  craft; 


BRITISH    INDIA  311 

ensnaring  them  by  vows  and  promises,  and  then  putting 
them  to  death.  These  Rajas  were  often  little  better  than 
freebooters,  and  their  suppression  was  indispensable  to  the 
tranquillity  of  the  province;  but  the  wholesale  destruction 
carried  out  by  Alivardi  Khan  was  characterized  by  barbari- 
ties which  were  most  revolting. 

The  English  had  some  experience  of  the  atrocities  com- 
mitted by  Alivardi  Khan.  In  those  days  the  English  boats 
carried  goods  and  treasure  between  Calcutta  and  Patna  un- 
der the  guard  of  European  soldiers.  In  1735  a  convoy  went 
as  usual  in  charge  of  an  English  civilian  named  Holwell  and 
a  Captain  Holcombe.  Near  Monghyr  the  two  gentlemen  saw 
a  boat  going  by  with  baskets,  which  they  took  to  contain 
fish.  They  hailed  the  boat  and  on  its  coming  alongside 
they  opened  the  baskets,  and  found  thirty  heads  of  men 
who  had  just  been  murdered. 

The  story  was  not  a  pleasant  one.  There  was  an  old 
Hindu  Raja  near  Monghyr  who  had  sturdily  held  out  against 
the  Moghul.  Captain  Holcombe  knew  him  well;  for  the 
Raja,  like  others  of  his  stamp,  claimed  a  right  to  levy  duties 
on  all  goods  coming  up  or  down  the  Ganges ;  a  point  which 
was  generally  settled  by  the  sword.  This  aged  warrior  died 
in  1730,  and  was  succeeded  by  a  son,  who  submitted  to  Ali- 
vardi Khan,  and  agreed  to  pay  a  yearly  tribute.  To  prevent 
treachery,  the  young  Raja  brought  his  tribute  every  year  to 
a  certain  spot  accompanied  by  only  thirty  followers.  In  like 
manner  Alivardi  Khan  was  pledged  to  send  an  officer  with 
only  thirty  followers  to  receive  the  money.  This  year  the 
payment  had  been  made  the  very  morning  that  Holwell  and 
Holcombe  hailed  the  boat.  Alivardi  Khan  had  ordered  an 
ambush  and  a  massacre;  and  the  three  baskets  contained  the 
heads  of  the  Raja  and  his  followers.  One  man  escaped  and 
told  the  tidings  to  the  young  Raja's  wife,  who  thereupon  set 
the  palace  on  fire,  and  perished  in  the  flames  with  an  infant 
son  and  all  her  female  attendants.  That  same  night  the 
Raja's  city  was  attacked,  plundered,  and  burned  by  the 
forces  of  Alivardi  Khan;  and  the  two  Englishmen  saw 


312  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

the  fire  and  smoke  from  the  place  where  they  lay  at 
anchor. 

Nawab  Shuja  Khan  died  in  1739,  the  same  year  that 
Nadir  Shah  attacked  Delhi.  His  son  Sarfaraz  Khan  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne,  and  turned  out  a  worse  profligate  than 
his  father.1  He  was  insolent  and  tyrannical,  and  at  last 
gave  mortal  offence  to  a  Hindu  family  of  great  wealth,  who 
had  long  exercised  a  commanding  influence  at  Murshedabad. 

Jagat  Seth,  the  patriarch  of  the  family,  was  the  wealth- 
iest banker  in  the  Moghul  empire,  the  Rothschild  of  Hindu- 
stan. The  wildest  stories  are  told  of  the  riches  of  his  house. 
The  Mahrattas  carried  off  two  millions  sterling  from  his 
family,  and  the  loss  was  no  more  felt  than  that  of  two 
trusses  of  straw.  He  knew  all  that  was  going  on  under 
every  court  in  India;  was  security  for  most  of  the  renters 
in  the  Bengal  provinces;  and  always  had  vast  sums  at  his 
command.  His  grandson,  a  mere  boy,  was  married  to  a 
girl  of  tender  years.  Out  of  mere  caprice  the  Nawab  in- 
sisted on  seeing  the  girl  without  a  veil.  This  matter,  so 
trifling  in  European  eyes,  was  regarded  by  Bengalis  as  an 
insult  and  disgrace  which  abrogated  the  marriage  tie,  and 
for  which  nothing  but  death  could  atone. 

The  result  was  that  a  plot  was  formed  by  Hindus  and 
Moghuls  for  the  destruction  of  Sarfaraz  Khan.  The  con- 
spirators invited  Alivardi  Khan  to  undertake  the  task,  and 
engaged  to  make  him  Nawab  of  the  three  provinces  in  the 
room  of  the  doomed  prince.  It  would  be  tedious  to  rake  up 
the  story  of  deceit,  treachery,  and  bribery.  Sarfaraz  Khan 
was  lulled  in  security,  while  Alivardi  Khan  was  hurrying 
an  army  through  the  narrow  pass  which  leads  from  Behar 
into  Bengal.  At  last  Sarfaraz  Khan  was  suddenly  aroused 
by  the  news  that  a  rebel  force  was  at  his  gates.  He  marched 
out  with  a  large  army  and  a  train  of  artillery ;  but  his  officers 
were  disaffected,  and  the  guns  were  loaded  with  powder  only, 


1  The  old  Nawabs  of  Bengal  were  so  abominably  wicked  that  there  is  not 
much  to  choose  between  them.     Their  vices  were  indescribable. 


BRITISH    INDIA  313 

without  ball.  The  battle  was  a  sham;  but  Sarfaraz  Khan 
was  slain,  and  Alivardi  Khan  was  proclaimed  Nawab  in 
his  room. 

Alivardi  Khan  has  been  styled  a  usurper.  He  subse- 
quently displayed  the  insignia  and  letters  of  investiture ;  but 
whether  they  were  forged,  or  were  bought  from  the  Delhi 
Vizier,  is  a  question  of  no  moment.  The  day  was  fast  ap- 
proaching when  no  rights  existed  in  India  save  those  of  the 
sword. 

Scarcely  had  Alivardi  Khan  secured  himself  as  Nawab, 
when  the  three  provinces  were  invaded  by  Mahrattas.  It 
was  said  that  the  Great  Moghul  was  so  disgusted  at  receiv- 
ing little  or  no  tribute  from  the  Nawab  that  he  told  the  Mah- 
rattas to  collect  chout  in  Bengal.  For  eight  years  in  succes- 
sion, from  1742  to  1750,  these  merciless  hordes  of  miscreants 
devastated  the  country  to  the  southward  of  the  Ganges,  from 
October  till  June,  and  never  retired  until  the  approach  of  the 
rainy  season.  All  this  was  done  under  pretence  of  collecting 
chout ;  for  by  this  time  the  Mahrattas  began  to  consider  that 
they  possessed  an  inherent  right  to  collect  chout  from  the 
whole  of  India. 

In  the  first  instance,  Alivardi  Khan  tried  to  get  rid  of 
the  Mahrattas  by  treachery  and  massacre.  The  command- 
ers on  either  side  were  to  meet  in  a  tent  and  arrange  the 
terms  of  chout.  The  bait  was  swallowed.  A  tent  was  pre- 
pared, and  the  Nawab  posted  an  ambush  between  a  double 
lining.  The  meeting  took  place;  the  signal  was  given;  the 
men  in  ambush  rushed  out  with  drawn  swords,  and  the  Mah- 
ratta  general  and  most  of  his  chief  officers  were  slaughtered 
on  the  spot. 

The  Mahratta  army  was  paralyzed  for  a  moment  at  this 
horrible  murder  of  their  leaders,  and  then  wreaked  their 
vengeance  upon  the  unoffending  inhabitants.  They  rav- 
aged the  country  with  fire  and  sword,  cutting  off  ears, 
noses,  and  hands,  and  committing  countless  barbarities  in 
the  search  of  spoil.  The  wretched  Bengalis  fled  in  shoals 
across  the  Ganges,  to  take  refuge,  or  perchance  to  perish, 
X— 14  INT>TA.  VOT,  T 


314  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

in  the  hills  and  jungles  to  the  northward  of  the  river.  It 
was  at  this  juncture  that  the  native  inhabitants  of  Calcutta 
began  to  dig  the  once  famous  Mahratta  ditch,  to  keep  the 
enemy's  horsemen  out  of  the  Company's  bounds.  * 

Alivardi  Khan  found  himself  powerless  to  act  against 
the  loose  bands  of  Mahrattas.  They  evaded  a  general  ac- 
tion, and  if  dispersed  from  one  place,  they  soon  reappeared 
elsewhere.  At  the  same  time  there  was  treachery  in  his  own 
camp.  He  relied  much  on  a  force  of  Afghan  mercenaries 
commanded  by  an  officer  named  Mustafa  Khan;  but  his 
brother,  Haji  Ahmad,  grew  jealous  of  Mustafa  Khan,  and 
charged  the  Afghan  with  being  in  secret  communication 
with  the  Mahrattas.  Mustafa  Khan  suddenly  fled  with  his 
Afghans  toward  Patna,  but  was  pursued  and  slain;  and 
Haji  Ahmad  cut  off  his  head,  and  carried  it  in  derision 
three  times  through  the  streets  of  Patna. 

The  atrocity  was  soon  avenged.  Haji  Ahmad  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Afghans,  and  was  put  to  a  cruel  death. 
He  was  scourged,  insulted,  and  exposed  to  the  derision  of 
the  mob,  and  then  tied  to  the  leg  of  an  elephant,  and  dragged 
through  the  streets  until  death  put  an  end  to  his  agonies. 

Such  details  are  revolting  to  all;  but  it  is  necessary  at 
times  to  lift  the  curtain  from  a  few  of  the  horrors  of  anarchy 
and  misrule.  It  will  suffice  to  add  that  in  1750  Alivardi 
Khan  came  to  terms  with  the  Mahrattas.  The  whole  prov- 
ince of  Orissa  was  ceded  to  the  Bhonsla  Raja  of  Berar  or 
Nagpore;  and  the  Nawab  agreed  to  pay  a  yearly  sum  of 
twelve  lakhs  of  rupees,  or  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
pounds  sterling,  as  chout  for  Bengal  and  Behar. 

Alivardi  Khan  was  now  an  old  man,  but  the  remainder 
of  his  days  were  spent  in  comparative  peace.  There  were 
horrible  scandals  in  his  household  at  Murshedabad,  as  well 
as  revolts  and  plots  on  the  part  of  members  of  his  family; 
but  with  all  his  crimes,  he  himself  was  free  from  vices.  It 


1  Every  vestige  of  this  once  famous  ditch  has  disappeared  from  Calcutta.     It 
is  supposed  to  have  run  along  the  site  at  present  known  as  the  Circular  Road. 


BRITISH   INDIA  315 

is  said  that  he  was  never  a  drunkard  nor  a  profligate;  and 
that  in  this  respect  his  private  lif e  differed  from  that  of  most 
Muhammadan  princes  in  India.  A  few  details  of  his  daily 
occupations  have  been  preserved  by  a  native  writer  who  en- 
joyed his  patronage.1  The  picture  may  be  somewhat  over- 
drawn, but  it  serves  to  illustrate  the  domestic  life  of  an  aged 
and  respectable  Muhammadan  grandee : 

"The  Nawab  Alivardi  Khan  always  rose  two  hours  be- 
fore daylight,  said  his  prayers  at  daybreak,  and  then  drank 
coffee  with  his  chosen  friends.  From  seven  o'clock  till  nine 
he  sat  in  the  hall  of  audience,  where  he  listened  to  the  rep- 
resentations of  those  of  his  officers  and  grandees  who  had 
anything  to  say.  At  nine  o'clock  he  retired  and  amused 
himself  with  the  company  of  particular  friends,  in  listening 
to  verses  of  poetry  or  pleasant  stories,  or  in  superintending 
the  preparation  of  different  dishes,  which  were  cooked  in  his 
presence  and  under  his  directions.  At  ten  o'clock  he  par- 
took of  the  chief  meal  of  the  day,  but  always  in  company; 
and  when  it  was  over  his  guests  washed  their  hands  and 
withdrew,  and  he  retired  to  his  couch  and  was  lulled  to  sleep 
by  the  story-tellers.  At  one  o'clock  he  awoke  and  drank  a 
cup  of  water  cooled  with  ice  or  saltpetre,  and  performed  his 
midday  prayers.  He  next  read  a  chapter  of  the  Koran  with 
a  loud  voice,  according  to  the  rule,  and  performed  his  after- 
noon prayers.  Pious  and  learned  men  were  then  introduced, 
and  regaled  with  coffee  and  hookahs ;  and  the  Nawab  drank 
coffee  with  them  but  never  smoked.2  A  Koran  was  set  up, 
and  conferences,  readings  and  explanations  would  occupy 
two  hours.  Next  the  chiefs  of  offices  were  in  attendance, 
and  among  others  the  wealthy  Jagat  Seth  made  his  appear- 
ance; and  these  men  read  or  told  him  the  news  from  all 


-  Siyar-ul-Mutaqherin,  by  Gholam  Husain  Ali,  Calcutta,  1786.  Large  use 
has  been  made  of  tliis  valuable  work  in  dealing  with  the  rise  of  the  British  em- 
pire in  India ;  but  the  author  was  a  bigoted  Shiah,  and  has  strong  likings  and 
bitter  dislikings,  which  must  always  be  taken  into  consideration. 

9  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  Alivardi  Khan  never  smoked.  Originally  he  is  said 
to  have  been  "hookah  bearer"  to  Shuja  Khan.  His  brother  Haji  Ahmad  is  said 
to  have  been  originally  a  khitmutgar,  or  table -servant. 


316  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

parts  of  India.  Wits  and  buffoons  followed,  with  whom  he 
cracked  jokes  for  another  two  hours.  By  this  time  it  would 
be  dusk,  and  the  Nawab  said  his  evening  prayers.  Then  the 
audience  hall  was  cleared  of  men,  and  the  ladies  of  the  fam- 
ily came  to  see  him.  A  supper  was  served  of  fresh  and  dried 
fruits  and  sweetmeats,  and  the  Nawab  generally  distributed 
them  among  the  ladies  with  his  own  hands.  After  supper 
the  ladies  retired  to  rest,  and  the  hall  was  opened  to  officers 
of  the  guard,  bed-watchers,  and  story-tellers;  and  the  Nawab 
again  retired  to  his  couch,  and  was  lulled  to  sleep  by  stories. 
He  generally  awoke  three  or  four  times  in  the  course  of  the 
night,  but  was  always  awake  about  two  hours  before  dawn. 
"The  Nawab  was  troubled  by  the  progress  of  affairs  in 
the  Dekhan ;  by  the  assassination  of  Nasir  Jung  during  his 
march  against  the  French  at  Pondicherry,  and  by  the  acces- 
sion of  Muzaffir  Jung,  who  was  supported  by  the  French. 
He  was  troubled  still  more  when  Muzaffir  Jung  was  slain, 
and  Salabut  Jung  was  made  Nizam  of  the  Dekhan,  and 
supported  on  the  throne  by  the  French  foreigners.  At  the 
same  time  he  received  a  pompous  letter  from  Bussy,  recom- 
mending the  French  at  Chandernagore  to  his  care  and  pro- 
tection. He  sent  no  reply  to  the  letter,  but  he  was  amazed 
and  perplexed.  'Those  hat-men,'  he  exclaimed,  'will  soon 
possess  all  the  seaboard  of  India. ' ' 

Alivardi  Khan  had  nominated  a  grandson  to  succeed  him, 
named  Suraj-ud-daula.  This  young  man  was  insolent  and 
vindictive,  as  well  as  cruel  and  profligate.  He  was  very 
bitter  against  the  English  at  Calcutta  and  complained  to  his 
grandfather  of  their  hostile  designs ;  but  the  old  Nawab  was 
on  his  dying  bed,  and  was  deaf  to  all  such  representations. 
Meanwhile  news  arrived  at  Murshedabad  that  the  English 
had  captured  the  great  fortress  of  Gheria,  the  stronghold  of 
Angria.  About  the  same  time,  it  was  reported  that  the  En- 
glish at  Calcutta  were  strengthening  their  fortifications  in 
order  to  fight  the  French  at  Chandernagore. 

The  eld  Nawab  died  in  April,  1756.     Suraj-ud-daula  sue- 


BRITISH    INDIA  317 

ceeded  to  the  throne  at  Murshedabad,  in  spite  of  hostile  in- 
trigues and  plots  in  favor  of  other  claimants. 1  He  was  told 
that  one  of  his  enemies  had  found  refuge  in  Calcutta,  and 
demanded  his  immediate  surrender ;  but  his  messenger  was 
regarded  with  suspicion  at  Calcutta,  and  no  reply  was  sent. 
Next  he  ordered  Mr.  Drake,  the  governor  of  Calcutta,  to 
demolish  his  new  fortifications.  Mr.  Drake  replied  that  no 
new  fortifications  had  been  constructed;  that  nothing  had 
been  done  beyond  repairing  a  line  of  guns  to  prevent  the 
French  from  capturing  Calcutta  in  the  same  way  that  they 
had  captured  Madras  ten  years  before.  The  young  Nawab 
was  furious  at  the  idea  of  the  English  fighting  the  French 
within  his  dominions.  He  sent  a  body  of  horsemen  to  sur- 
round the  factory  of  Cossimbazar,  in  the  suburbs  of  his  cap- 
ital, and  to  bring  away  the  English  there  as  his  prisoners. 
He  then  assembled  an  army  of  fifty  thousand  men,  and  a 
train  of  artillery,  and  marched  to  Calcutta  with  such  haste 
in  the  month  of  June  that  many  of  his  troops  died  of  fatigue 
and  sunstroke  on  the  way. 

The  English  at  Calcutta  were  bewildered  by  these  tid- 
ings. They  expected  some  demand  for  money,  but  were 
taken  aback  by  the  capture  of  Cossimbazar.  The  Mahrattas 
had  caused  an  occasional  scare  at  Calcutta,  but  many  years 
had  passed  away  since  the  English  had  the  slightest  grounds 
for  expecting  an  attack  from  the  Nawab.  The  defences  had 
been  neglected;  warehouses  had  been  built  adjoining  the 
fort ;  while  the  fort  itself  was  overlooked  by  numerous  build- 
ings. The  English  at  Calcutta  were  a  mere  handful.  There 
were  not  five  hundred  men  in  all  Calcutta,  including  En- 
glishmen and  mixed  races.  There  were  only  a  hundred  and 
seventy  European  soldiers,  and  of  these  scarcely  ten  had  seen 
any  service  beyond  parade.  Still,  had  Clive  been  there,  he 
would  have  defied  the  Nawab  and  all  his  rabble  host.  All 
tall  houses  would  have  been  demolished;  all  inconvenient 

1  One  of  these  claimants  had  actually  secured  letters  of  investiture  from  Delhi 
for  the  three  provinces  of  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa,  by  promising  to  send  a 
yearly  tribute  to  the  Moghul  treasury  of  one  million  sterling. 


318  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

walls  would  have  been  thrown  down;  and  any  enemy  en- 
camped in  the  neighborhood  would  have  been  kept  in  con- 
stant alarm,  by  shells  during  the  day,  and  by  sallies  at 
night,  until  the  besiegers  thought  proper  to  disappear  from 
the  scene. 

But  instead  of  standing  a  siege  in  Fort  William,  as  Olive 
had  done  in  the  citadel  at  Arcot,  the  English  madly  at- 
tempted to  defend  the  town  of  Calcutta  by  isolated  outposts 
at  a  distance  from  the  fort.  The  fighting  began  on  Wednes- 
day, the  16th  of  June.  During  Thursday  and  Friday  the 
outposts  were  driven  in  by  sheer  force  of  numbers;  and 
after  much  desperate  fighting  in  the  streets  and  avenues 
the  English  fell  back  on  the  fort.  On  Saturday,  the  19th 
of  June,  the  enemy  opened  a  cannonade.  The  women  were 
carried  to  the  ships,  and  Mr.  Drake  and  some  others  escaped 
with  them ;  and  then,  to  the  utter  disgust  of  those  left  in  the 
fort,  the  ships  moved  down  the  river. 

Next  morning  was  Sunday  the  20th  of  June.  The  enemy 
tried  to  escalade  the  walls,  but  the  rabble  soldiery  were 
easily  driven  back,  and  there  was  a  lull  in  the  fighting.  By 
this  time,  heat  and  fatigue  had  told  on  the  English  garrison. 
The  European  soldiers  broke  into  the  arrack  stores  and  got 
drunk.  There  was  a  flag  of  truce  and  a  parley.  Meanwhile 
the  native  soldiers  climbed  over  the  walls,  and  broke  in  at 
different  openings,  and  there  was  a  general  surrender. 

The  Nawab  entered  Fort  William  in  great  pomp,  but 
found  only  fifty  thousand  rupees  in  the  treasury.  He  sent 
for  Mr.  Hoi  well,  who  represented  the  governor  in  the  ab- 
sence of  Mr.  Drake.  He  swore  that  no  harm  should  befall 
the  prisoners,  but  he  was  very  angry  at  the  small  amount  in 
the  treasury.  Mr.  Holwell  was  soon  dismissed,  and  returned 
to  his  fellow- prisoners,  who  were  assembled  under  a  strong 
guard  in  a  low  veranda  in  front  of  a  line  of  barracks.  For 
some  time  the  Nawab's  officers  could  find  no  place  fitted  for 
the  confinement  of  the  prisoners.  At  last,  at  the  end  of  the 
chambers,  they  found  the  strong-room  of  the  garrison,  known 
as  the  Black  Hole.  It  was  not  twenty  feet  square.  There 


BRITISH   INDIA  313 

was  no  air  except  what  came  through  the  veranda  and  two 
little  gratings  hi  the  door.  Into  this  close  dungeon,  on  one 
of  the  hottest  nights  in  a  Calcutta  June,  a  hundred  and 
forty-six  prisoners  were  thrust  by  swords  and  clubs.  The 
door  was  then  shut,  and  the  shrieking  captives  were  left  to 
die.  Next  morning,  twenty-three  fainting  wretches  were 
dragged  out  alive ;  the  remaining  hundred  and  twenty- three 
were  corpses. 

The  question  of  who  was  to  blame  for  this  catastrophe  has 
often  been  argued,  but  has  long  ceased  to  be  of  any  moment. 
Suraj-ud-daula  may  have  been  free  of  blame.  He  left  the 
custody  of  the  prisoners  to  his  officers,  and  then  retired  to 
rest,  and  no  one  dared  to  wake  him.  But  next  morning  he 
was  utterly  callous  to  all  that  had  happened,  and  only  anx- 
ious to  know  where  the  English  had  secreted  their  vast 
treasures.  The  native  inhabitants  of  Bengal  were  equally 
callous.  The  tale  of  horror  thrilled  through  the  British  em- 
pire; and  would  have  excited  the  same  indignation  had  it 
occurred  in  the  remotest  village  in  England  or  Ireland.  But 
in  India  it  excited  no  horror  at  all;  it  fell  on  the  listless  ears 
of  Asiatics  and  was  forgotten,  if  indeed  it  was  ever  known. 
Muhammadan  historians  tell  the  story  of  the  capture  of  Cal- 
cutta, but  they  say  nothing  of  the  Black  Hole.1 

The  terrible  tidings  of  the  capture  of  Calcutta  and  catas- 
trophe of  the  Black  Hole  reached  Madras  in  August.  It 
created  a  stir  in  the  settlement  which  is  perhaps  without  a 
parallel  in  Madras  history.  Bussy  and  the  French  were  for- 
gotten ;  and  it  was  speedily  resolved  that  the  force  intended 
for  the  Dekhan  should  be  despatched  with  all  speed  to  Bengal. 

The  fleet  left  Madras  in  October,  1756,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Admiral  Watson ;  the  land  forces  were  commanded 


1  This  utter  want  of  political  ties  among  the  masses  of  natives  of  India  is  the 
cause  of  their  depression.  Individually  they  are  the  kindest  and  most  compas- 
sionate people  in  the  world,  but  outside  their  own  little  circle  of  family  or  caste 
they  are  utterly  heedless  of  what  is  going  on.  Within  the  last  few  years  there 
has  been  a  change  for  the  better;  the  famines  have  enlarged  their  sympathies, 
and  the  political  future  of  the  Hindu  people  is  more  hopeful  now  than  at  any  for- 
mer period  of  their  history. 


320  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

by  Colonel  Olive.  The  expedition  reached  Calcutta  on  the 
1st  of  January,  1757.  There  was  very  little  fighting.  The 
Moghul  commander  at  Hughli  had  been  appointed  governor 
of  Calcutta,  and  he  fled  in  a  panic  on  the  arrival  of  the  En- 
glish. On  the  2d  of  January  the  English  flag  was  hoisted 
on  Fort  William.  On  the  10th  the  English  advanced  to  the 
native  town  of  Hughli,  and  speedily  took  possession  of  the 
place.1 

All  this  while  the  Nawab  had  been  puffed  up  by  the  cap- 
ture of  the  European  fortress  at  Calcutta.  He  threatened 
to  punish  the  French  and  Dutch  in  like  manner;  but  they 
professed  implicit  obedience,  and  sent  him  large  sums  of 
money.  He  released  his  English  prisoners,  and  thought 


1  Some  of  the  details  of  the  fighting  are  valuable  as  illustrations  of  Asiatic 
warfare.  The  approach  to  Calcutta  was  guarded  by  the  fort  of  Budge-budge, 
now  spelled  Baj-baj.  Colonel  Clive,  over-confident  and  contemptuous  of  the 
natives,  expected  to  capture  the  place  wituout  much  resistance ;  and  laid  an 
ambuscade  to  cut  off  the  retreat  of  the  Muhammadan  garrison.  The  enemy, 
however,  attacked  the  ambuscade  by  surprise ;  and  nothing  but  the  cool  intrepid- 
ity of  Clive  saved  it  from  destruction.  Meanwhile  the  artillery  hi  the  fort  played 
upon  the  English  squadron,  and  was  only  silenced  by  a  heavy  fire  from  the 
shipping. 

Under  these  circumstances  Clive  prepared  to  storm  the  place  on  the  following 
morning.  At  night,  while  the  storming  party  was  resting  on  the  ground,  and  all 
on  board  the  shipping  were  retiring  to  rest,  a  roar  of  acclamation  was  heard  from 
the  shore,  and  news  was  brought  to  Admiral  "Watson  that  Baj-baj  had  been  cap- 
tured. It  appeared  that  a  drunken  sailor  named  Strahan,  having  a  cutlass  in 
one  hand  and  a  pistol  in  the  other,  had  scaled  a  breach  single-handed,  fired  his 
pistol,  and  rushed  011  the  Muhammadan  sentinels  with  wild  huzzas.  Two  or 
three  other  sailors  heard  the  uproar,  and  followed  their  comrade  with  shouts  and 
yells.  The  garrison  fled  in  a  panic.  The  storming  party  of  soldiers  burst  in 
pell-mell,  without  order  or  discipline,  and  found  themselves  in  possession  of  the 
fort,  with  eighteen  cannon  and  forty  barrels  of  powder. 

Admiral  Watson  thought  it  necessary  for  the  sake  of  discipline  to  be  very 
angry  with  Strahan;  but  the  fellow  said  that  he  meant  no  harm,  and  promised 
never  to  take  a  fort  again  without  orders.  Subsequently  the  admiral  would  have 
made  the  man  a  boatswain,  but  his  habits  were  against  him.  It  was  afterward 
discovered  that  Strahan's  ambition  was  to  be  appointed  cook  on  board  one  of  the 
ships,  but  whether  his  ambition  was  gratified  is  unknown  to  history. 

Another  absurd  occurrence  took  place  after  the  capture  of  Hughli.  Three 
English  sailors  were  missing,  and  were  supposed  to  have  been  killed  or  seriously 
wounded.  At  night  the  officers  on  board  the  ships  saw  that  several  villages  were 
in  flames.  Next  morning  the  three  sailors  appeared  floating  on  a  raft.  They 
had  found  themselves  deserted  by  their  companions,  and  had  set  the  villages  on 
fire  to  make  the  inhabitants  believe  that  the  English  forces  were  still  on  shore. 
Subsequently  they  had  found  the  raft,  and  escaped  in  safety  before  the  natives 
had  recovered  from  their  panic. 


BRITISH    INDIA  321 

that  hostilities  were  at  an  end.  It  never  crossed  his  mind 
that  the  English  would  return  in  force  and  demand  com- 
pensation and  revenge.  But  the  recovery  of  Calcutta  and 
capture  of  Hughli  filled  him  with  alarm.  He  marched  a 
large  army  toward  Calcutta,  but  professed  a  desire  for  peace 
and  friendship,  and  promised  to  compensate  the  English  for 
all  their  losses. 

At  the  same  time  Clive  himself  was  anxious  for  peace. 
All  his  thoughts  were  occupied  by  the  coming  war  with 
France.  He  would  have  abandoned  all  ideas  of  punishment 
or  revenge,  provided  that  the  Nawab  compensated  the  En- 
glish for  their  losses,  and  permitted  him  to  capture  the  French 
settlement  at  Chandernagore. 

The  Nawab  agreed  to  everything  that  Clive  proposed,  but 
he  was  resolved  in  his  own  heart  to  do  nothing.  A  treaty 
was  concluded  without  the  slightest  difficulty;  but  Clive 
soon  found  that  the  Nawab  had  only  made  peace  in  order 
to  gain  time  and  procure  help  from  the  French.  The  Nawab 
promised  to  compensate  the  English  for  their  losses  at  the 
capture  of  Calcutta,  but  he  evaded  every  demand  for  a  set- 
tlement. He  sent  letters  and  presents  to  Bussy,  requesting 
him  to  march  up  from  the  Dekhan  and  drive  the  English  out 
of  Bengal.  He  forbade  the  English  to  attack  the  French; 
but  news  arrived  that  the  Afghans  had  captured  Delhi,  and 
intended  conquering  Bengal.  In  his  terror  he  implored  Clive 
to  help  him  against  the  Afghans.  Under  the  influence  of 
this  terror  he  permitted  the  English  to  attack  Chanderna- 
gore, but  then  withdrew  his  permission.  Both  Clive  and 
"Watson  considered  the  withdrawal  as  an  indignity,  and 
sailed  against  Chandernagore  and  captured  it.  The  Nawab 
then  sent  letters  of  congratulation  to  Clive  and  Watson;  and 
actually  offered  to  make  over  the  territory  of  Chandernagore 
to  the  English  on  the  same  terms  that  it  had  been  held  by 
the  French. 

Meanwhile  the   dissimulation  of  the  Nawab  reached  a 
climax.     He  harbored  the  French  refugees  from  Chander 
nagore ;  and  then  supplied  them  with  funds,  and  sent  them 


322  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

up  country.  He  posted  a  force  at  Plassy,  on  the  way  to 
Calcutta,  under  the  command  of  an  officer  named  Mir  Jafir; 
and  when  Clive  remonstrated  with  him  on  this  hostile  dem- 
onstration, he  joined  Mir  Jafir  at  Plassy  with  the  whole  of 
his  army. 

At  this  juncture  there  was  a  widely  spread  disaffection 
against  the  Nawab.  Mir  Jafir  at  Plassy  and  Jagat  Seth, 
the  Hindu  banker  at  Murshedabad,  were  deeply  implicated, 
and  they  invited  Clive  to  join  in  the  general  conspiracy.  It 
was  agreed  that  Clive  should  march  an  army  to  Plassy,  and 
that  Mir  Jafir  should  desert  the  Nawab  and  join  the  English 
army  with  all  his  forces;  and  a  treaty  was  concluded  under 
which  Suraj-ud-daula  was  to  be  dethroned,  and  Mir  Jafir 
was  to  be  proclaimed  Nawab  in  his  room. 

Unfortunately  the  communication  between  the  head  con- 
spirators and  Clive  was  carried  on  through  a  Hindu  named 
Omichund.  This  man  threatened  to  divulge  the  whole  plot 
to  Suraj-ud-daula  unless  an  article  was  inserted  in  the  treaty 
pledging  Mir  Jafir  to  pay  him  three  hundred  thousand  pounds 
sterling  as  the  price  of  his  silence.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
Omichund  was  a  consummate  rascal  without  honor  or  shame ; 
but  the  mode  adopted  for  keeping  him  quiet  was  a  slur  upon 
the  English  character.  Omichund  was  duped  with  a  sham 
treaty  containing  the  desired  clause,  which  was  omitted  from 
the  real  treaty.  Clive  and  others  signed  the  sham  treaty,  but 
Watson  refused  to  sign  any  treaty  but  the  real  one.  Clive 
added  the  name  of  Watson  to  the  sham  treaty  with  the  full 
knowledge  of  the  admiral;  and  he  invariably  urged  to  the 
day  of  his  death  that  he  was  fully  justified  in  all  he  had 
done.1 

Clive  advanced  from  Calcutta  to  Plassy  with  a  small  force 


1  This  sham  treaty  is  the  one  blot  on  dive's  public  character.  He  did  not  per- 
sonally derive  any  advantage  from  it;  he  thought  himeelf  justified  in  taking  such 
a  step  for  defeating  the  perfidy  of  a  villain  like  Omichund.  He  would  not  have 
been  condemned  by  the  public  opinion  of  Orientals,  who  regard  all  such  fabrica- 
tions as  justifiable  against  an  enemy.  But  it  lias  been  universally  condemned 
by  the  public  opinion  of  Europe,  and  will  stain  the  memory  of  Olive  until  the 
end  of  time. 


BRITISH    INDIA  323 

of  three  thousand  men  and  nine  pieces  of  artillery.  The  army 
of  the  Nawab  consisted  of  fifty  thousand  foot,  eighteen  thou- 
sand horse,  and  fifty  pieces  of  artillery.  *  The  famous  battle 
was  fought  on  the  23d  of  June,  1757.  It  was  little  better 
than  a  cannonade.  Mir  Jafir  did  nothing,  and  the  whole 
brunt  of  the  fighting  fell  upon  the  English.  At  last  the  En- 
glish advanced  to  storm  the  camp  of  the  Nawab,  and  Suraj- 
ud-daula  was  seized  with  a  panic  and  fled  from  the  field. 

Olive  next  went  to  Murshedabad  and  placed  Mir  Jafir  on 
the  throne.  The  new  Nawab  was  profuse  with  his  presents 
and  promises,  but  his  resources  are  supposed  to  have  been 
greatly  exaggerated.  The  treasures  of  Suraj-ud-daula  had 
been  estimated  at  forty  millions  sterling,  but  only  a  million 
and  a  half  was  realized.  Mir  Jafir  engaged  to  pay  a  million 
to  the  East  India  Company ;  three-quarters  of  a  million  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Calcutta,  natives  as  well  as  Europeans; 
and  vast  presents  to  Clive  and  other  members  of  govern- 
ment. As  a  first  instalment,  a  hundred  boatloads  of  silver, 
to  the  value  of  eight  hundred  thousand  pounds,  were  sent 
down  the  river  to  Calcutta,  and  the  whole  population  of  the 
English  settlement  was  wild  with  joy. 

Besides  money  the  new  Nawab  ceded  a  large  tract  on  the 
river  Hughli,  which  had  long  been  coveted  by  the  East  India 
Company.  It  was  given  as  a  jaghir  according  to  Moghul 
fashion ;  the  Company  collected  the  yearly  revenue,  valued 
at  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling,  but  was  required  to 
pay  a  quit-rent  of  thirty  thousand  pounds,  nominally  to  the 
Great  Moghul. 

Clive  was  a  great  stickler  for  Moghul  forms.  It  will  be 
seen  hereafter  that  the  recognition  of  the  effete  sovereignty 
of  the  Great  Moghul  was  the  keystone  of  his  policy.  Mir 
Jafir  was  virtually  created  a  Nawab  by  Clive ;  for  all  prac- 
tical purposes  he  was  an  independent  sovereign;  yet  he 


1  No  reliance  whatever  can  be  placed  upon  the  estimated  numbers  of  any 
native  army.  It  is  mere  guess  work.  Clive  himself  reckoned  the  army  of  the 
Nawab  to  consist  of  thirty-five  thousand  foot,  fifteen  thousand  horse,  and  forty 
pieces  of  cannon. 


324  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

deemed  it  necessary  to  procure  letters  of  investiture  from 
the  Moghul  court  for  the  three  provinces  of  Bengal,  Behar, 
and  Orissa.  At  the  same  time  Clive  was  created  an  Amir 
of  the  Moghul  empire,  with  the  honorary  rank  or  command 
of  six  thousand  foot  and  five  thousand  horse.  Of  course  the 
force  only  existed  on  paper,  but  Clive  asked  for  the  jaghir 
supposed  to  be  given  for  its  maintenance.  Mir  Jafir  was  per- 
plexed at  the  demand,  but  finally  made  over  the  quit-rent  of 
the  jaghir  previously  granted  to  the  Company.  Thus  Clive 
came  into  possession  of  thirty  thousand  a  year  payable  by 
the  East  India  Company,  who  were  supposed  to  be  his  hon- 
orable masters. 

The  revolution  effected  by  the  battle  of  Plassy  involved 
the  English  in  endless  difficulties  which  no  one  had  foreseen. 
The  process  of  dethroning  Suraj-ud-daula  and  setting  up  Mir 
Jafir  in  his  room  was  a  simple  affair;  but  Mir  Jafir  had  no 
hold  upon  the  grandees,  and  was  soon  regarded  with  jealousy 
and  hatred,  especially  when  they  saw  the  boats  loaded  with 
silver  going  down  to  Calcutta.  It  was  soon  evident  that  as 
the  English  alone  had  placed  Mir  Jafir  on  the  throne  of  Ben- 
gal and  Behar,  so  the  English  alone  would  be  able  to  keep 
him  there. 

To  make  matters  worse,  it  was  discovered  that  Mir  Jafir 
was  unfit  for  the  dignity.  He  had  served  with  credit  as  a 
commander  in  the  field,  but  he  had  no  administrative  ability, 
civil  or  military.  He  idled  away  most  of  his  time  under  the 
influence  of  bhang,  or  in  the  company  of  singing  and  danc- 
ing girls.  He  complained  of  an  empty  treasury,  and  his 
army  was  mutinous  for  want  of  pay ;  but  he  always  appeared 
loaded  with  costly  jewels,  with  five  or  six  bracelets  of  differ- 
ent gems  on  his  arms,  and  three  or  four  chaplets  of  pearls 
hanging  from  his  neck.1  His  son  Miran  rendered  himself 

1  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  English  were  duped  as  regards  the  treas- 
ures of  Murshedabad,  and  that  enormous  wealth  to  the  value  of  many  millions 
sterling  was  concealed  in  the  recesses  of  the  Nawab's  palace,  and  shared  by  Mir 
Jafir  and  some  others.  The  author  of  the  Siyar-ul-Mutaqherin  says  that  the 
English  only  knew  of  the  outer  treasury.  "Those  renowned  English,"  says 
Grholam  Husain  Khan,  "who  looked  down  with  contempt  on  the  intellects  and 


BRITISH   INDIA  325 

detestable  by  murders  and  assassinations.  Ten  days  after 
the  battle  of  Plassy,  Suraj-ud-daula  was  taken  prisoner  and 
cruelly  murdered  in  the  palace  at  Murshedabad.  Other 
members  or  partisans  of  the  family,  male  and  female,  were 
put  to  death  in  like  manner.  Mir  Jafir  threw  all  the  blame 
upon  his  son  Miran. 

The  English  were  anxious  to  maintain  the  dignity  of  the 
new  Nawab  by  showing  him  every  kind  of  deference ;  but  his 
dependence  on  the  "hat  wallahs,"  and  his  morbid  terror  of 
Clive,  rendered  him  the  laughing-stock  of  his  courtiers. 
Within  a  few  months  of  his  accession  he  was  nicknamed 
"Colonel  Olive's  Jackass,"  and  he  retained  the  title  till  his 
death.  The  storj7  is  told  of  a  fray  between  the  followers  of 
a  Moghul  grandee  and  the  servants  of  Clive.  The  Nawab 
warned  the  grandee  against  any  rupture.  The  grandee  re- 
plied with  a  sneer:  "My  lord  Nawab,  I  am  not  likely  to 
quarrel  with  the  Colonel.  I  never  rise  in  the  morning  with- 
out making  three  salams  to  his  Jackass,  and  am  the  last 
man  to  fall  out  with  the  rider."  Such  stories  tell  more  of 
the  current  feeling  at  Murshedabad  than  pages  of  description.1 

In  truth  the  change  of  Nawabs  had  revolutionized  the 
political  ideas  of  all  the  great  men  at  court.  Before  the  cap- 
ture of  Calcutta,  the  English  had  only  appeared  at  Mursheda- 
bad as  supplicants  for  trading  privileges.  After  the  battle 
of  Plassy  they  were  lords  and  masters,  to  be  propitiated  as 
the  representatives  of  a  new  and  paramount  power.  Under 
such  circumstances  it  was  only  natural  that  they  should  be 


abilities  of  the  Bengalis,  and  yet  are  perpetually  baffled  and  duped  by  them,  did 
not  know  anything  of  the  inner  treasury,  said  to  contain  money  and  jewels  to 
the  value  of  eight  millions  sterling,  and  which,  pursuant  to  a  custom  well  known 
in  India,  was  kept  in  the  Zenana,  or  women's  apartments.  This  inner  treasury 
was  shared  by  Mir  Jafir  and  three  natives."  The  author  adds  that  two  of  the 
natives  were  writers  in  the  service  of  Clive,  whose  respective  salaries  were  only 
sixty  rupees  a  month,  or  about  four  shillings  per  diem ;  yet  ten  years  afterward 
one  of  these  men  died  worth  a  million  and  a  quarter  sterling,  wliile  the  other 
spent  ninety  thousand  pounds  on  his  mother's  funeral  alone. — Siyar-ul-Mutaq- 
herin,  vol.  i.,  p.  773. 

1  Mill  tells  the  story  in  his  History  of  India,  and  Macaulay  copies  it  in  hia 
Essay  on  Clive ;  but  both  missed  the  point  from  ignorance  of  Mir  Jafir's  nick- 
name. See  Stewart's  History  of  Bengal  Also  Scott's  Dekhan,  vol.  ii.,  p.  376. 


326  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

feared  and  hated ;  and  those  Moghuls  who  were  loudest  in 
their  praises  of  the  English  would  gladly  have  seen  them 
at  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

Another  circumstance  was  calculated  to  exasperate  Mir 
Jafir  and  the  Moghuls  against  the  English.  Alivardi  Khan 
had  filled  all  the  higher  offices  and  commands  with  Hindus, 
who  were  raised  to  the  rank  of  Rajas,  and  thus  served  as 
checks  upon  the  Zemindars,  who  were  mostly  Muhamma- 
dans.  His  prime  minister  was  a  Hindu,  and  a  so-called 
Raja;  so  were  the  governors  of  most  of  the  towns  and 
districts.  Such  nominal  Rajas  were  more  amenable  to 
orders,  and  less  likely  to  rebel,  than  turbulent  Muhamma- 
dans.  Mir  Jafir  wanted  to  remove  them  from  their  posts, 
and  replace  them  by  his  own  kinsmen  and  dependents.  The 
result  was  that  plots  and  intrigues  were  seething  in  all  di- 
rections. Some  of  the  Hindu  Rajas  were  in  fear  of  their 
lives,  and  implored  the  protection  of  the  English.  Olive 
guaranteed  the  lives  of  some  of  these  Hindus,  but  he  could 
not  keep  them  in  their  posts;  and  thus  disaffection  was 
spreading  over  the  province,  while  the  English  were  more 
feared  and  hated  than  ever. 

But  this  fear  and  hate  were  only  felt  by  the  grandees. 
The  general  complaint  of  the  natives  was  that  the  English 
did  not  interfere  to  protect  the  people.  A  native  contempo- 
rary observes  that  the  presence  of  mind,  firmness  of  temper, 
and  undaunted  bravery  of  the  English  were  beyond  all  ques- 
tion ;  but  they  took  no  heed  of  the  husbandmen,  and  were 
apathetic  and  indifferent  to  the  suffering  masses. 

Suddenly  Mir  Jafir  was  threatened  with  new  dangers. 
The  Mahrattas  demanded  arrears  of  chout  for  Bengal  and 
Behar,  and  it  was  difficult  to  evade  the  claim. '  They  had 
compelled  Alivardi  Khan  to  pay  chout;  and  they  conse- 
quently claimed  it  as  their  right  from  his  successors.  They 
did  not  enforce  the  payment  by  the  actual  invasion  of  Ben- 

1  The  chout  for  Behar  and  Bengal  was  claimed  by  the  Bhonsla  Raja  of  Berar 
or  Nagpore.  At  this  time  Janoji  Bhonsla  was  the  reigning  Raja.  The  history 
of  the  Mahratta  empire  and  its  feudatories  will  be  given  hereafter  in  Chapter  Y. 


BRITISH   INDIA  327 

gal ;  but  it  is  evident  that  they  were  only  restrained  by  a 
wholesome  fear  of  Olive. 

In  1758  the  eldest  son  of  the  Great  Moghul,  known  as 
the  Shahzada,  appeared  in  force  near  the  Behar  frontier  at 
the  river  Carumnassa,  proclaiming  that  he  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  the  government  of  Bengal,  Behar  and  Orissa  by 
the  Great  Moghul.  His  cause  was  supported  by  Shuja-ud- 
daula,  the  Nawab  of  Oude ;  and  also  by  a  body  of  French- 
men under  M.  Law,  the  ex-governor  of  Chandernagore.  At 
the  same  time  the  Hindu  deputy-governor  of  Behar,  who  had 
been  threatened  by  Mir  Jafir,  was  naturally  intriguing  with 
the  Shahzada,  and  inclined  to  open  the  way  to  the  invaders. 

The  appearance  of  the  Shahzada  brings  the  Great  Moghul 
upon  the  stage,  and  necessitates  a  glance  at  the  progress  of 
affairs  at  Delhi.  Ever  since  the  death  of  Muhammad  Shah 
in  1748,  the  Mogbul  capital  had  been  torn  by  distractions. 
Muhammad  Shah  had  been  succeeded  by  his  son  Ahmad 
Shah.  The  new  Padishah  found  himself  threatened  by  the 
Afghans  on  one  side,  and  the  Mahrattas  on  the  other.  At 
the  same  time  the  post  of  Vizier  was  a  bone  of  contention 
between  the  Sunnis  and  the  Shiahs :  the  Sunnis  as  represented 
by  a  grandson  of  Nizam-ul-mulk,  named  Ghazi-ud-din ;  and 
the  Shiahs  as  represented  by  the  Nawab  of  Oude.1  In  the 
end  the  Sunnis  triumphed,  and  Ghazi-ud-din  became  Vizier. 

Ghazi-ud-din  aspired  to  exercise  the  sovereign  power  under 
the  name  of  Vizier,  just  as  the  Saiyids  had  done  in  a  previous 
generation.  He  found  Ahmad  Shah  restive  and  dangerous, 
and  consequently  dethroned  him,  blinded  him,  and  consigned 
him  to  the  state  prison  of  Salimghur.  He  next  placed  an 
imbecile  old  prince  on  the  throne  of  Delhi,  under  the  name 

1  The  Nawab  of  Oude  at  this  time  was  Sufdar  Jung.  He  had  married  a 
daughter  of  Saadut  Ali  Khan,  and  succeeded  to  the  government  of  Oude  on  the 
death  of  his  father  in  1739.  (See  ante,  p.  265.)  He  obtained  the  post  of  Vizier 
during  the  reign  of  Ahmad  Shah,  son  of  Muhammad  Shah ;  but  was  subsequently 
forced  to  leave  Delhi  through  the  intrigues  of  Ghazi-ud-din.  In  1753  Sufdar 
Jung  collected  a  large  force,  and  besieged  Delhi ;  and  ultimately  compelled  the 
Moghul  court  to  give  him  a  formal  grant  of  the  provinces  of  Oude  and  Allahabad 
for  himself  and  his  heirs.  He  died  shortly  afterward,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
son,  the  celebrated  Shuja-ud-daula.  His  touib  is  one  of  the  sights  at  Delhi. 


828  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

of  Alamghir.  He  then  treated  the  Padishah  as  a  pageant, 
and  usurped  the  sovereign  authority,  selling  titles  and  letters 
of  investiture  to  Nawabs  in  remote  provinces,  and  raising 
money  in  every  possible  way. 

In  1757,  the  year  of  the  battle  of  Plassy,  matters  were 
brought  to  a  terrible  standstill.  Ahmad  Shah  Abdali,  the 
founder  of  the  Afghan  empire,  appeared  at  Delhi  with  a 
large  army,  and  levied  contributions  from  the  inhabitants, 
with  all  the  merciless  ferocity  of  an  old  officer  of  Nadir  Shah. 
He  next  marched  down  the  valley  of  the  Jumna  to  the 
sacred  city  of  Mathura,  plundering  and  destroying  after 
the  manner  of  Mahmud  of  Ghazni.  He  seems  however  to 
have  had  some  respect  for  the  sovereignty  of  the  Great  Mo- 
ghul.  He  allied  himself  with  the  family  of  the  Moghul 
by  marrying  a  daughter  of  the  deceased  Muhammad  Shah. 
He  appointed  an  Afghan,  named  Najib-ud-daula  to  be  Amir 
of  Amirs,  and  to  act  as  guardian  for  Alamghir  in  the  room 
of  Ghazi-ud-din,  the  Vizier,  who  had  fled  into  exile.  Hav- 
ing thus  arranged  matters  to  his  satisfaction,  Ahmad  Shah 
Abdali  left  Delhi  and  returned  with  the  bulk  of  his  army 
to  Kandahar. 

The  Afghans  at  this  period  were  threatening  to  become 
a  formidable  power  in  India.  They  already  occupied  the 
Punjab,  and  neither  Sikhs,  Moghuls,  nor  Mahrattas  could 
drive  them  out.  They  had  long  founded  a  powerful  princi- 
pality in  Hindustan  to  the  northeast  of  Delhi,  in  a  region 
known  as  the  Rohilla  country;  it  has  disappeared  from 
modern  maps,  but  the  principality  is  represented  to  this  day 
by  the  little  state  of  Rampore.  Najib-ud-daula,  the  new 
guardian  of  the  Moghul  sovereign,  was  an  Afghan  of  the 
Rohilla  country.  In  a  word  the  Afghans  were  in  a  fair  way 
of  supplanting  the  Moghuls,  and  once  again  becoming  the 
dominant  power  in  Hindustan. 

No  sooner,  however,  had  Ahmad  Shah  Abdali  gone  off 
to  Kandahar,  than  Ghazi-ud-din,  the  ex- Vizier,  subverted 
the  Afghan  power  at  Delhi.  He  raised  a  vast  body  of  Mah- 
ratta  mercenaries;  drove  out  Najib-ud-daula;  murdered  or 


BRITISH   INDIA  829 

imprisoned  all  the  grandees  who  had  opposed  him ;  reduced 
Alamghir  to  the  condition  of  a  puppet,  and  sought  to  murder 
the  Shahzada,  or  eldest  son  and  heir  of  Alamghir. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  Shahzada  fled  from  Delhi  in  terror 
of  his  life.  For  a  year  the  imperial  exile  fished  in  troubled 
waters,  seeking  in  turns  the  protection  of  the  Rohilla  Af- 
ghans and  the  Mahrattas.  At  last  he  took  refuge  with 
Shuja-ud-daula,  Nawab  of  Oude,  the  hereditary  Shiah  and 
mortal  enemy  of  Ghazi-ud-din.1  But  the  Nawab  of  Oude 
was  in  no  hurry  to  commit  himself.  He  cared  nothing  for 
the  Shahzada,  but  was  very  anxious  to  get  the  Bengal  prov- 
inces into  his  own  hands.  He  sent  a  force  to  accompany 
the  Shahzada  to  the  Behar  frontier,  and  then  waited  for 
events. 

Meanwhile  Clive  and  Mir  Jafir  were  drawn  into  an  ex- 
traordinary correspondence  with  the  Shahzada,  and  also 
with  the  Moghul  court  at  Delhi.  Clive  received  friendly 
letters  from  the  Shahzada,  who  was  anxious  to  win  the  sup- 
port of  the  ever- victorious  English  general.  Mir  Jafir,  how- 
ever, received  orders  from  the  Vizier,  and  also  from  the 
Great  Moghul,  to  arrest  the  Shahzada,  and  send  him  pris- 
oner to  Delhi.  So  Clive  wrote  back  to  the  Shahzada  that 
he  had  been  created  an  Amir  of  the  empire,  and  was  conse- 
quently bound  to  support  Mir  Jafir,  who  had  been  invested 
by  the  Great  Moghul  with  the  government  of  Bengal,  Behar, 
and  Orissa. 

The  military  operations  that  followed  are  of  no  interest. 
Mir  Jafir  was  in  a  helpless  state  of  terror,  and  wanted  to 
bribe  the  Shahzada  to  go  away.  Clive  vehemently  remon- 
strated against  this  ruinous  proceeding,  and  marched  an 
English  force  to  Patna,  and  soon  disposed  of  the  Shahzada. 
The  helpless  prince  fled  into  obscurity,  but  was  reduced  to 
such  distress  that  Clive  sent  him  a  present  of  five  hundred 

1  Ghazi-ud-din  was,  as  already  said,  the  grandson  of  Nizam-ul-mulk,  and 
consequently  the  hereditary  Turk  and  Sunni.  The  race  difference  between 
Moghul  and  Turk,  and  the  religious  antagonism  between  Shiah  and  Sunni,  will 
clear  up  much  of  the  confusion  that  has  prevailed  in  the  history  of  Muhamma- 
dan  India. 


330  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

gold  mohurs,  or  about  eight  hundred  pounds  sterling,  which 
was  gladly  accepted. 

M.  Law  and  his  Frenchmen,  who  had  accompanied  the 
Shahzada  through  all  his  troubles,  were  again  thrown  upon 
their  own  resources.  Law  remarked  to  an  intelligent  native 
that  he  had  travelled  over  the  whole  country  from  Bengal 
to  Delhi,  and  witnessed  nothing  but  oppression.  The  gran- 
dees of  Hindustan  thought  only  of  their  own  aggrandize- 
ment, and  let  the  world  go  to  ruin.  He  had  proposed  to 
both  the  Vizier  at  Delhi  and  the  Nawab  of  Oude  to  restore 
order  to  the  Moghul  empire,  as  the  re-establishment  of  the 
authority  of  the  Moghul  throughout  Hindustan  would  render 
it  easy  to  drive  the  English  out  of  Bengal ;  but  no  one  paid 
the  slightest  heed  to  his  representations.  Law  failed  to  per- 
ceive that  the  order  which  he  proposed  to  restore  would  have 
been  destructive  alike  to  the  Delhi  Vizier  and  the  Nawab  of 
Oude. 

Meanwhile  the  successes  of  the  French  in  the  Dekhan  and 
Peninsula  were  forced  upon  the  attention  of  Olive.  In  1756 
the  collision  between  the  English  and  French  in  the  Dekhan 
had  been  averted  for  a  while  by  the  disaster  at  Calcutta, 
which  called  away  the  English  force  from  Madras  on  the  eve 
of  its  march  to  Hyderabad.  In  1757  Bussy  made  his  peace 
with  Salabut  Jung,  and  returned  to  the  Northern  Circars, 
where  he  came  into  collision  with  Hindu  Poligars  of  the  old 
Rajput  type.  Amid  all  the  vicissitudes  of  Moghul  rule  these 
Poligars  had  maintained  a  secure  independence  in  hills  and 
jungles ;  they  were  nominally  pledged  to  pay  tribute  to  the 
Nizam,  but  they  withheld  payment  whenever  they  had  an 
opportunity.  Had  they  been  united  they  might  have  resisted 
the  demands  of  the  French ;  but  they  were  at  deadly  feud 
with  each  other;  and  one  of  them,  known  as  the  Raja  of 
Vizianagram,  managed  to  turn  the  wrath  of  Bussy  against 
his  neighbor  of  Bobili,  who  for  generations  had  been  his 
mortal  enemy.  The  Raja  of  Bobili  claimed  to  be  a  Rajput 
of  high  descent,  whose  ancestors  had  fought  under  the 
ancient  Maharajas  of  Jagganath  in  the  old  mythical  wars 


BEITISH   INDIA  331 

against  the  south.  He  affected  to  scorn  his  Vizianagram 
neighbor  as  a  low-born  chieftain  of  a  new  creation;  and  his 
retainers  wreaked  their  spite,  by  turning  off  the  rivulets 
which  ran  into  Vizianagram  territory.  Bussy  was  induced 
to  take  a  part  in  the  rivalry ;  and  ultimately  to  revenge  some 
unexplained  outrage  by  driving  the  Bobili  Raja  out  of  his 
hereditary  territories. 

The  catastrophe  that  followed  is  a  terrible  story  of  Raj- 
put desperation  and  revenge.  The  Bobili  Raja  retired  to  a 
remote  stronghold  in  a  deep  jungle.  Bussy  broke  down  the 
battlements  with  his  cannon,  but  for  a  long  time  failed  to 
capture  the  place.  The  Rajput  garrison  was  exposed  to  a 
withering  fire,  but  resisted  the  escalading  parties  with  the 
ferocity  of  wild  beasts  defending  their  dens  and  families. 
At  last  resistance  was  in  vain.  The  garrison  gathered  all 
the  women  and  children  into  the  habitations  in  the  centre 
of  the  fort,  and  set  the  whole  on  fire,  stabbing  or  cutting 
down  any  one  who  attempted  to  escape.  They  then  returned, 
like  frantic  demons,  to  die  upon  the  walls.  Quarter  was 
refused,  and  the  Raja  perished  with  all  his  retainers,  sword 
in  hand.  The  French  entered  the  fort  in  triumph,  but  there 
was  no  joy  in  the  victory,  and  the  sight  of  the  horrible 
slaughter  moved  them  to  tears.  Presently  an  old  man 
appeared  with  a  little  boy ;  he  had  saved  the  son  of  the  Raja 
contrary  to  the  will  of  the  father. 

The  death  of  the  Bobili  Raja  was  followed  by  speedy 
retribution.  Four  retainers  had  seen  him  fall,  and  had  es- 
caped to  the  jungle  and  sworn  to  be  revenged.  One  night 
two  of  them  crept  to  the  quarters  of  the  Raja  of  Viziana- 
gram and  stabbed  him  to  death ;  they  were  cut  to  pieces  by 
the  guards,  but  died  exulting  in  their  crime.  Had  they 
failed,  the  other  two  remaining  in  the  jungle  were  bound 
by  the  same  oath  to  avenge  the  death  of  their  Raja  or 
perish  in  the  attempt.1 

1  Rajput  revenge  is  the  same  in  all  ages.  The  revenge  of  the  men  of  Bobili 
is  paralleled  by  the  revenge  of  Aswatthama  and  his  comrades  on  the  sons  of  the 
Pandavas,  after  the  war  of  the  Maha  Bharata. 


332  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

The  other  Poligars  in  the  Northern  Circars  were  so  terri- 
fied by  the  fate  of  Bobili  that  they  hastened  to  settle  all 
arrears  of  tribute.  The  Poligar  of  Gumsur  alone  held  out, 
but  was  compelled  in  the  end  to  submit  in  like  manner. 

During  this  expedition  Bussy  received  letters  from  Suraj- 
ud-daula,  inviting  him  to  Bengal;  and  he  would  have 
marched  to  the  relief  of  the  Nawab,  but  was  stopped  by 
the  news  of  the  fall  of  Chandernagore.  In  revenge  for  that 
capture  he  drove  the  English  out  of  Vizagapatam,  and  took 
possession  of  three  other  factories  which  they  had  established 
further  south  on  the  coast  of  the  delta  of  the  Godavari. 

A  native  contemporary  writer  contrasts  the  personal  ap- 
pearance of  Bussy  with  that  of  Olive,  and  treats  each  in  turn 
as  a  type  of  the  French  and  English  nations.  Bussy  wore 
embroidered  clothes  or  brocade.  He  and  his  officers  rode  on 
elephants,  preceded  by  "chopdars,"  or  mace-bearers  with 
silver  sticks,  while  musicians  and  eulogists  were  singing  his 
praises.  He  received  state  visits  while  sitting  on  a  throne 
embroidered  with  the  arms  of  the  King  of  France.  His 
table  was  served  with  plate,  and  with  three  or  four  services. 
Olive  always  wore  his  regimentals  in  the  field,  and  never 
wore  silk  except  in  town.  He  always  rode  on  horseback. 
He  kept  a  plentiful  table,  but  in  no  way  delicate,  and  never 
with  more  than  two  services. ' 

In  1758  the  fortunes  of  the  French  in  India  underwent 
an  entire  change.  In  April  a  French  fleet  arrived  at  Pondi- 
cherry.  It  brought  a  large  force  under  the  command  of 
Count  de  Lally,  who  had  been  appointed  Governor-General 
of  the  French  possessions  in  India.  Lally  was  imbued  with 
a  bitter  hatred  against  the  English,  and  a  profound  distrust 
in  the  honesty  or  patriotism  of  his  own  countrymen  in  India. 
No  sooner  had  he  landed  at  Pondicherry  than  he  organized 
an  expedition  against  Fort  St.  David;  but  he  found  that  no 

1  Gholam  Busain  Ali  in  the  Siyar-ul-Mutaqherin.  He  adds  that  "Warren 
Hastings,  who  plays  a  part  in  the  after  history,  always  wore  a  plain  coat  of  En- 
glish broadcloth,  and  never  anything  like  lace  or  embroidery.  His  throne  was  a 
plain  chair  of  mahogany.  He  was  sparing  in  his  diet,  and  Ms  table  was  some- 
times neglected.  His  address  showed  little  of  pride  and  still  less  of  familiarity. 


BRITISH    INDIA  333 

preparations  had  been  made  by  the  French  authorities. 
There  was  a  want  alike  of  coolies,  draught  cattle,  provis- 
ions, and  ready  money.  But  the  energy  of  Lally  overcame 
all  obstacles.  Tile  French  authorities  at  Pondicherry  accused 
him  of  pressing  natives  and  cattle;  but  Lally  retorted  by 
declaring  that  the  oppressions  and  rapacity  of  the  French 
government,  and  the  extortions  of  its  native  servants,  had 
alone  prevented  his  obtaining  all  that  he  required. 

In  June,  1758,  Lally  captured  Fort  St.  David.  He  then 
prepared  to  capture  Madras  as  a  preliminary  to  an  advance 
on  Bengal.  He  recalled  Bussy  from  the  Dekhan  to  help 
him  with  his  Indian  experiences;  and  he  sent  the  Marquis 
de  Conflans  to  succeed  Bussy  in  the  command  of  the  North- 
ern Circars. 

Bussy  left  the  Dekhan  with  the  utmost  reluctance.  He 
had  secured  a  paramount  influence  in  the  Northern  Circars, 
and  was  anxious  to  remain  and  protect  Salabut  Jung  against 
the  designs  of  his  younger  brother  Nizam  Ali.  Lally,  how- 
ever, was  deaf  to  all  remonstrances.  He  believed  that  Bussy 
was  either  deluded  by  others  or  desirous  of  deceiving  him ; 
and  he  was  confirmed  in  this  belief  when  he  found  that 
Bussy,  notwithstanding  his  alleged  conquests  and  command- 
ing position,  had  no  funds  at  his  disposal,  and  was  unable  to 
raise  any  money  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  against  the 
English. 

The  departure  of  Bussy  from  the  Northern  Circars  was 
disastrous  to  the  French.  The  Raja  of  Vizianagram  revolted 
against  the  French  and  sent  to  Calcutta  for  help.  Clive 
despatched  an  English  force  to  the  Northern  Circars,  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Forde;  and  in  December,  1758, 
Colonel  Forde  defeated  the  French  under  Conflans,  and 
prepared  to  recover  all  the  English  factories  on  the  coast 
which  had  been  captured  by  Bussy. 

Meanwhile  Count  de  Lally  was  actively  engaged  at  Pondi- 
cherry in  preparations  for  the  siege  of  Madras.  He  hoped  to 
capture  Madras,  and  complete  the  destruction  of  the  English 
in  the  Carnatic ;  and  then  to  march  northward,  capture  Cal- 


334  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

cutta,  and  expel  the  English  from  Bengal.  But  he  was  with- 
out resources;  there  was  no  money  to  be  had  in  Pondicherry. 
At  last  he  raised  a  small  sum,  chiefly  out  of  his  own  funds, 
and  began  the  march  to  Madras ;  his  officers  preferring  to 
risk  death  before  the  walls  of  Madras  to  certain  starvation 
within  the  walls  of  Pondicherry. 

Lally  reached  Madras  on  the  12th  of  December,  1758,  and 
at  once  took  possession  of  Black  town.  He  then  began  the 
siege  of  Fort  St.  George  with  a  vigor  and  activity  which  com- 
manded the  respect  of  his  enemies.  His  difficulties  were  enor- 
mous. For  six  weeks  his  officers  and  soldiers  were  on  half 
pay ;  for  another  six  weeks  they  received  no  pay  at  all.  Dur- 
ing the  last  fifteen  days  they  had  no  provisions  except  rice 
and  butter.  Even  the  gunpowder  was  nearly  exhausted. 
At  last  on  the  16th  of  February,  1759,  an  English  fleet  ar- 
rived at  Madras  under  Admiral  Pocock,  and  Lally  was  com- 
pelled to  raise  the  siege.  Such  was  the  state  of  party  feeling 
among  the  French  in  India  that  the  retreat  of  Lally  from 
Madras  was  received  at  Pondicherry  with  every  demonstra- 
tion of  joy. 

The  career  of  Lally  in  India  lasted  for  two  years  longer, 
namely  from  February,  1759,  to  February,  1761 ;  it  is  a  series 
of  hopeless  struggles  and  wearying  misfortunes.  In  the  Dek- 
han,  Salabut  Jung  had  been  thrown  into  the  utmost  alarm 
by  the  departure  of  Bussy  and  defeat  of  Conflans.  He . was 
exposed  to  the  intrigues  and  plots  of  his  younger  brother 
Nizam  Ali,  and  he  despaired  of  obtaining  further  help  from 
the  French.  Accordingly  he  opened  up  negotiations  with 
Colonel  Forde  and  the  English.  Forde  on  his  part  recovered 
all  the  captured  factories,  and  drove  the  French  out  of  the 
Northern  Circars.  He  could  not,  however,  interfere  in  the 
domestic  affairs  of  the  Dekhan,  by  helping  Salabut  Jung 
against  Nizam  Ali.  In  1761  Salabut  Jung  was  dethroned 
and  placed  in  confinement;  and  Nizam  Ali  ascended  the 
throne  at  Hyderabad  as  ruler  of  the  Dekhan.1 

1  Two  years  afterward  Salabut  Jung  was  murdered.     By  the  treaty  of  Paris, 
concluded  between  Great  Britain  and  France  in  1763,  both  nations  agreed  to  rec- 


BRITISH   INDIA  335 

In  the  Carnatic  the  French  were  in  despair.  In  January, 
1760,  Lally  was  defeated  by  Colonel  Coote  at  "Wandiwash, 
between  Madras  and  Pondicherry.  Lally  opened  up  nego- 
tiations with  Hyder  Ali,  who  was  rising  to  power  in  Mysore ; 
but  Hyder  Ali  as  yet  could  do  little  or  nothing. 

At  the  end  of  1760  Colonel  Coote  began  the  siege  of  Pondi- 
cherry. Lally  still  held  out  at  Pondicherry,  but  he  was  ill 
in  health,  and  worn  out  with  vexation  and  fatigue.  The 
settlement  was  torn  by  dissensions.  In  January,  1761,  the 
garrison  was  starved  into  a  capitulation,  and  the  town  and 
fortifications  were  levelled  with  the  ground.  A  few  weeks 
afterward  the  French  were  compelled  to  surrender  the  strong 
hill-fortress  of  Jinji,  and  their  military  power  in  the  Carnatic 
was  brought  to  a  close. 

The  fate  of  Lally  is  more  to  be  pitied  than  that  of  Dupleix. 
He  had  not  sought  his  own  aggrandizement,  but  the  honor 
and  glory  of  the  French  nation ;  and  he  had  been  thwarted 
by  the  apathy  of  selfish  traders  who  cared  only  for  them- 
selves. On  his  return  to  France  he  was  sacrificed  to  save 
the  reputation  of  the  French  ministers.  France  was  furious 
at  the  loss  of  her  possessions  in  India,  and  the  enemies  of 
Lally  combined  to  make  him  the  victim.  The  unfortunate 
Count,  after  an  honorable  service  of  forty-five  years,  was 
thrown  into  the  Bastile;  and  a  number  of  vague  or  frivo- 
lous charges  were  trumped  up  against  him.  He  was  tried 
by  the  parliament  of  Paris,  but  backbiting  and  detraction 
had  poisoned  the  mind  of  the  nation  against  him,  and  Lally 
was  a  ruined  man.  In  May,  1766,  he  was  condemned  not 
only  to  death,  but  to  immediate  execution.  The  suddenness 
of  the  doom  drove  him  frantic.  He  took  a  pair  of  compasses 
with  which  he  had  been  sketching  a  map  of  the  coast  of  Coro- 
mandel  and  tried  to  drive  them  to  his  heart.  His  hand  was 


ognize  Salabut  Jung  as  the  rightful  ruler  of  Hyderabad  territory,  although  at 
that  moment  Salabut  Jung  was  confined  in  a  fortress,  and  Nizam  Ali  occupied 
the  throne  of  Hyderabad.  Nizam  Ali,  however,  removed  all  diplomatic  difficul- 
ties by  putting  his  brother  to  death.  Nizam  Ali  lived  on  till  1803.  Next  to  his 
father,  Nizam-ul-mulk,  Nizam  Ali  is  the  best  known  ruler  of  the  dynasty. 


336  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

stayed,  his  mouth  was  gagged,  and  he  was  dragged  with 
ignominy  to  execution.  Thus  fell  the  last  of  the  three  mar- 
tyrs of  the  French  East  India  Company — Labourdonnais, 
Dupleix,  and  Lally. 

Meanwhile  there  had  been  great  changes  in  Bengal.  In 
June,  1758,  Clive  had  been  appointed  Governor  of  all  the 
Company's  settlements  in  Bengal.  In  1759  Lally  had  been 
compelled  to  raise  the  siege  of  Madras,  and  Forde  had  pur- 
sued his  career  of  victory  in  the  Northern  Circars.  There 
was  nothing  further  to  fear  from  the  French  in  India ;  and 
in  February,  1760,  Clive  resigned  his  post  in  Bengal  and  re- 
turned to  England.  He  was  succeeded  for  a  few  months  by 
Mr.  Holwell,  and  afterward  by  Mr.  Vansittart ;  but  the  times 
were  out  of  joint.  No  one  but  Clive  seemed  to  comprehend 
the  revolutionary  character  of  the  crisis ;  and  the  Company's 
government  in  Bengal  drifted  on,  it  knew  not  where,  like 
a  ship  laboring  through  a  troubled  sea. 

Before  Clive  left  India  he  was  convinced  that  so  long  as 
Mir  Jafir  was  allowed  to  reign  as  Nawab,  the  Company's 
settlements  in  Bengal  would  be  exposed  to  sore  peril.  Hin- 
dustan was  swarming  with  adventurers  at  the  head  of  war- 
like bands,  Mahratta  and  Afghan;  and  Mir  Jafir  and  his 
rabble  army  would  have  been  powerless  of  themselves  to 
contend  against  such  hardy  warriors.  A  permanent  force 
of  two  thousand  European  soldiers,  and  a  corresponding 
army  of  drilled  sepoys,  could  maintain  Bengal  and  Behar 
against  all  comers ;  but  who  was  to  pay  the  cost?  The  en- 
tire revenue  of  the  provinces  was  swallowed  up  by  the  Na- 
wab ;  and  it  was  out  of  the  question  that  the  Company  should 
maintain  such  a  force  out  of  the  profits  of  their  trade,  even 
supposing  that  they  could  bear  the  strain. 

Under  these  circumstances  Clive  made  a  proposal  to  Mr.* 
William  Pitt,  the  great  war  minister  of  England ;  and  coming, 
as  it  did,  from  a  servant  of  the  Company,  it  must  have  some- 
what staggered  that  illustrious  statesman.  He  proposed  that 
the  British  nation,  and  not  the  Company,  should  take  pos- 
session of  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa  in  full  sovereigntyc 


BRITISH    INDIA  337 

He  explained  that  the  Great  Moghul  would  readily  grant 
the  three  provinces  to  any  one  who  would  guarantee  the 
regular  yearly  payment  of  some  half  million  sterling  to  the 
imperial  treasury.  He  further  explained  that  the  Vizier  had 
already  offered  him  the  post  of  Dewan,  or  collector  of  the 
revenue  for  the  three  provinces,  on  these  conditions.  He 
summed  up  the  advantages  to  the  British  nation  as  follows. 
The  total  revenue  was  certainly  two  if  not  three  millions. 
Thus  after  deducting  half  a  million  as  tribute  to  the  Great 
Moghul,  and  another  half  a  million  for  the  maintenance  of  a 
military  force,  there  would  remain  a  handsome  surplus  for 
the  payment  of  the  national  debt,  or  any  other  national  un- 
dertaking. ' 

Pitt  was  not  inclined  to  accept  Olive's  proposal.    He  feared 
that  the  acquisition  of  Bengal  would  render  the  British  Crown 


1  Clive'a  letter  to  Pitt  was  dated  7th  of  January,  1759.  (See  Malcolm's  Life 
of  Olive,  vol.  ii.)  Strange  to  say,  a  similar  proposal  had  been  drawn  up  by  a 
Colonel  James  Mill  as  far  back  as  1746.  Colonel  Mill  planned  the  conquest  of 
Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa,  under  the  flag  of  Germany,  and  in  behalf  of  the 
Great  Moghul.  The  original  paper  may  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  Bolt's 
Affairs  in  Bengal.  The  following  remarks  throw  a  curious  light  on  the  con- 
temporary condition  of  the  Moghul  empire : 

"The  Moghul  empire,"  says  Colonel  Mill,  "is  overflowing  with  gold  and 
silver.  She  has  always  been  feeble  and  defenceless.  It  is  a  miracle  that  no 
European  prince  with  a  maritime  power  has  ever  attempted  the  conquest  of  Ben- 
gal. By  a  single  stroke  infinite  wealth  might  be  acquired,  which  would  counter- 
balance the  mines  of  Brazil  and  Peru. 

"The  policy  of  the  Moghuls  is  bad;  their  army  is  worse;  they  are  without 
a  navy.  The  empire  is  exposed  to  perpetual  revolts.  Their  ports  and  rivers  are 
open  to  foreigners.  The  country  might  be  conquered,  or  laid  under  contribution, 
as  easily  as  the  Spaniards  overwhelmed  the  naked  Indians  of  America. 

"A  rebel  subject  named  Alivardi  Khan  has  torn  away  the  three  provinces  of 
Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa  from  the  Moghul  empire.  He  has  treasure  to  the 
value  of  thirty  millions  sterling.  His  yearly  revenue  must  be  at  least  two  mil- 
lions. The  provinces  are  open  to  the  sea.  Three  ships  with  fifteen  hundred  or 
two  thousand  regulars  would  suffice  for  the  conquest  of  the  three  provinces, 
which  might  be  carried  out  in  the  name  of  the  Great  Moghul,  for  the  destruction 
of  a  rebel  against  his  lawful  suzerainty." 

The  proposals  of  Colonel  Mill  have  been  overlooked  by  Indian  historians;  but 
they  are  valuable  as  the  outcome  of  his  twenty  years'  experience  of  India  during 
the  second  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  so-called  Moghul  empire  had 
reached  a  crisis  and  its  conquest  was  inevitable ;  and  as  no  Asiatic  power  was 
able  to  effect  it,  and  no  European  power  would  accept  the  responsibility,  the  con- 
quest was  forced  on  a  company  of  English  traders,  a  contingency  which  alone 
saved  the  people  of  India  from  becoming  alternately  the  prey  of  Mahrattas  and 
Afghans. 
X— 15  INDIA.  VOL.  I. 


338  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

too  powerful,  and  might  endanger  the  liberties  of  the  English 
people.  Thus  the  grand  scheme  for  acquiring  possession  of 
Bengal  for  the  British  nation,  rather  than  for  the  East  India 
Company,  was  allowed  to  drop  into  oblivion. 

About  this  time  there  was  another  revolution  at  Delhi. 
The  Vizier  discovered  that  his  imperial  master,  Alamghir, 
was  corresponding  with  Ahmad  Shah  Abdali,  and  inviting 
the  Afghan  ruler  to  return  to  Delhi.  Accordingly  he  treach- 
erously assassinated  the  aged  Padishah,  and  tried  to  set  up 
another  puppet  to  represent  the  Great  Moghul.  But  his 
career  of  ambition  and  atrocity  was  drawing  to  a  close. 
The  avenging  army  of  Afghans  once  more  advanced  to 
Delhi  under  their  dreaded  ruler;  and  the  Vizier  fled  away 
from  Delhi  to  begin  a  new  set  of  intrigues :  to  stir  up  the 
Mahrattas  against  the  Afghans,  and  to  oppose  the  return  of 
the  Shahzada  to  Delhi. 

The  Mahrattas  soon  began  to  dispute  with  the  Afghans 
for  the  possession  of  the  Moghul  empire.  The  war  lasted 
some  months,  but  was  brought  to  a  close  in  January,  1761, 
by  the  terrible  battle  of  Paniput  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Delhi.1  This  battle  was  one  of  the  bloodiest  in  the  annals 
of  the  world.  On  the  7th  of  January  the  Mahrattas  were 
defeated  with  horrible  slaughter.  A  mob  of  fugitives  escaped 
to  the  village  of  Paniput,  with  a  multitude  of  women  and 
children.  The  Afghans  surrounded  the  village  throughout 
the  night  to  cut  off  all  chance  of  escape.  Next  morning  the 
male  prisoners  were  brought  out  in  files  and  beheaded  in  cold 
blood.  The  women  and  children  were  carried  away  into 
hopeless  slavery.  Generations  passed  away  before  the  bloody 
field  of  Paniput  was  forgotten  by  the  Mahrattas.  It  was  said 
that  two  hundred  thousand  Mahrattas  had  fallen  in  that  mur- 
derous campaign. 

Ahmad  Shah  Abdali  was  once  more  the  arbiter  of  the  fate 
of  the  Moghul  empire.  He  would  have  placed  the  Shahzada 


1  The  details  of  Mahratta  history,  before  and  after  the  battle  of  Paniput,  will 
be  told  hereafter  in  Chapter  V. 


BRITISH    INDIA  339 

on  the  throne  at  Delhi,  but  the  heir  of  the  murdered  Alamghir 
was  a  fugitive  and  an  exile.  Accordingly  he  placed  a  son  of 
the  Shahzada,  named  Jewan  Bakht,  upon  the  throne,  to  reign 
as  the  deputy  of  his  father.  He  also  appointed  Najib-ud- 
daula,  the  Rohilla  Afghan,  to  act  as  guardian  of  the  young 
prince  under  the  title  of  Amir  of  Amirs,  in  the  same  way 
that  he  had  previously  appointed  him  to  be  guardian  of  the 
murdered  Alamghir. 


340  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 


CHAPTER    III 
REVOLUTIONARY  THROES 

A.D.  1761   TO   1766 

THE  year  1761,  like  1748,  is  an  epoch  in  Indian  history. 
It  saw  the  fall  of  Pondicherry,  the  overthrow  of  the 
Mahrattas,  and  the  ascendency  of  the  Afghans.  The 
revolution  at  Delhi  brought  the  Shahzada  once  more  to  the 
front,  and  the  Moghul  prince  began  to  play  a  part  in  the  his- 
tory. He  was  proclaimed  Padishah  under  the  title  of  Shah 
Alam ;  and  he  assumed  the  dignity  of  Great  Moghul  by  tak- 
ing his  seat  upon  a  throne  surmounted  with  the  umbrella  of 
sovereignty.  Finally  he  appointed  Shuja-ud-daula,  Nawab 
of  Oude,  to  the  honorary  but  nominal  post  of  Vizier  of  the 
Moghul  empire. 

Shuja-ud-daula  gladly  accepted  the  empty  title  and  hoped 
to  obtain  solid  advantages.  The  Mahrattas  were  prostrate; 
the  Afghan  conqueror  was  favorable  to  Shah  Alam;  and 
Clive  had  gone  to  England.  Accordingly  the  Nawab  Vizier 
contemplated  wresting  Behar  and  Bengal  from  the  feeble 
hands  of  Mir  Jafir  in  the  name  and  under  the  authority  of 
the  Great  Moghul. 

Shah  Alam  and  the  Nawab  Vizier  once  more  appeared 
with  a  large  army  on  the  Behar  frontier  and  threatened 
Patna.  The  incapacity  of  Mir  Jafir  at  this  crisis  was  in- 
sufferable. He  was  worse  than  useless,  while  his  army  was 
a  rabble  in  a  chronic  state  of  mutiny  for  want  of  pay.  Mr. 
Vansittart  was  Governor  at  Calcutta,  and  thought  to  meet 
the  difficulty  by  appointing  a  grandee  of  capacity  to  act  as 


BRITISH    INDIA  34] 

a  deputy  Nawab,  who  would  do  all  the  work,  while  Mir 
Jafir  retained  the  name  and  dignity. 

Mir  Jafir  had  a  son-in-law,  named  Mir  Kasim,  or  Cossim, 
who  seemed  a  likely  man  for  the  post.  Accordingly  Gov- 
ernor Vansittart  proceeded  to  Murshedabad,  and  proposed 
the  measure  to  the  Nawab  and  his  son-in-law,  but  found 
them  both  to  be  impracticable.  Indeed  both  men  were  dis- 
gusted with  the  proposal.  Mir  Kasim  had  been  scheming  to 
become  Nawab,  and  was  angry  at  being  offered  the  post  of 
deputy.  Mir  Jafir  saw  that  he  was  to  be  shelved,  and  was 
furious  at  the  threatened  loss  of  power.  Accordingly,  after 
some  vacillation  Governor  Vansittart  determined  to  dethrone 
Mir  Jafir  and  set  up  Mir  Kasim. 

Of  course  there  was  a  preliminary  treaty  with  Mir  Kasim, 
and  the  Nawab  expectant  naturally  yielded  to  every  demand. 
He  pledged  himself  to  respect  every  privilege  that  had  been 
granted  to  the  English  by  Mir  Jafir.  He  also  agreed  to  pay 
up  all  arrears  due  to  the  English  from  Mir  Jafir ;  to  contrib- 
ute fifty  thousand  pounds  sterling  toward  the  expenses  of 
the  war  against  the  French  in  the  Carnatic;  and  to  cede 
the  three  districts  of  Burdwan,  Midnapore,  and  Chittagong, 
which  yielded  a  yearly  revenue  of  half  a  million  sterling. 
By  this  last  measure  Mir  Kasim  hoped  to  guard  against  the 
money  disputes  which  had  embittered  the  relations  between 
the  English  and  Mir  Jafir;  as  it  provided  for  the  military 
defence  of  the  provinces  on  the  scale  recommended  by  Olive, 
without  the  necessity  of  paying  hard  cash  out  of  the  Nawab's 
treasury. 

In  Oriental  countries  little  can  be  done  without  presents. 
Mir  Jafir  had  been  profuse  in  his  presents  to  Olive  and  other 
English  officers  and  members  of  council ;  and  Mir  Kasim  was 
prepared  in  like  manner  to  purchase  the  favor  and  goodwill 
of  the  English  gentlemen  at  Calcutta.  Accordingly  Mir 
Kasim  offered  twenty  lakhs  of  rupees,  or  two  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling,  to  Governor  Vansittart  to  be  shared 
by  himself  and  members  of  the  council.  Vansittart,  how- 
ever, refused  to  take  the  money.  Mr.  Mill,  thf»  historian  of 


342  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

India,  declares  on  the  evidence  of  a  native  that  the  money 
was  accepted ;'  but  recent  researches  in  the  government  rec- 
ords at  Calcutta  prove  beyond  all  question  that  the  money 
was  refused,  and  that  Mr.  Vansittart  was  an  upright  and 
honorable  man. 

The  change  of  Nawabs  was  carried  into  effect  without 
any  opposition.  The  people  of  Bengal  were  indifferent  to 
the  revolution.  Mir  Jafir  yielded  to  his  fate,  and  gave  up 
the  title  as  well  as  the  dignity.  But  he  was  conscious  that 
his  life  was  no  longer  safe  at  Murshedabad;  and  that  he 
would  be  murdered  without  scruple  by  the  new  Nawab  to 
prevent  further  complications.  Accordingly,  in  spite  of  his 
anger  at  the  English  for  dethroning  him,  he  hastened  to 
Calcutta  and  placed  his  family  and  treasures  under  their 
protection. 

The  new  Nawab  soon  paid  off  the  arrears  due  to  the  En- 
glish government  at  Calcutta,  and  also  satisfied  the  claims 
of  his  own  army.  He  then  took  the  field  against  Shah 
Alam,  accompanied  by  an  English  force  under  Major  Car- 
nac.  The  army  of  Shah  Alam  was  utterly  routed,  and  the 
Nawab  Vizier  fled  back  to  Oude. 

But  there  was  a  political  difficulty  as  regards  Shah  Alam. 
He  was  generally  recognized  as  the  rightful  Padishah  and 
Great  Moghul;  and  though  the  assumed  sovereignty  was 
but  the  shadow  of  a  name,  it  was  thought  necessary  to  come 
to  terms  with  him.  Accordingly  Major  Carnac  paid  a  com- 
plimentary visit  to  Shah  Alam,  and  conducted  the  pageant 
Padishah  to  Patna,  the  capital  of  Mir  Kasim's  province  of 
Behar. 

At  Patna  the  English  factory  was  converted  into  a  palace 
for  the  installation  of  the  Great  Moghul.  The  centre  room 
was  hung  with  stuffs  and  formed  a  hall  of  audience.  The 
dining-tables  were  covered  with  carpets  and  turned  into  an 


1  For  many  years  this  groundless  charge,  originating  with  Mr.  Mill,  has  clung 
to  the  memory  of  Governor  Vansittart.  The  evidence  contradicting  it  may  be 
found  in  Chapter  IX.  of  Early  Records  of  British  India,  published  by  the  author 
of  the  present  volume. 


BRITISH    INDIA  343 

imperial  throne.  Shah  Alam  was  carried  in  grand  proces- 
sion to  the  factory  and  enthroned  on  the  dining-tables.  Mir 
Kasim  entered  the  hall  and  paid  his  homage  to  the  Padishah, 
and  presented  an  honorary  gift  of  a  thousand  and  one  gold 
mohurs. 

The  English  were  dazzled  with  the  ancient  glory  of  the 
Great  Moghul;  and  Shah  Alam  profited  accordingly.  Let- 
ters of  investiture  were  procured  from  the  Padishah  confer- 
ring the  Nawabship  of  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa,  on  Mir 
Kasim ;  but  in  return  Mir  Kasim  was  obliged  to  pledge  him- 
self to  pay  a  yearly  tribute  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  sterling 
to  Shah  Alam.  Mir  Kasim  could  have  made  better  terms, 
since  he  had  Shah  Alam  in  his  power,  and  might  have  com- 
pelled him  by  threats  or  torture  to  do  his  bidding ;  but  the 
English  interfered  to  protect  the  Great  Moghul,  and  Mir 
Kasim  was  foiled.  But  the  English  were  foiled  in  their 
turn.  They  asked  Shah  Alam  to  grant  them  letters  of  in- 
vestiture for  the  three  districts  of  Burdwan,  Midnapore,  and 
Chittagong,  which  had  been  ceded  by  Mir  Kasim.  Also,  as 
a  legal  safeguard  against  any  future  contingency,  they  asked 
for  letters  of  investiture  in  behalf  of  Muhammad  AH,  the 
Nawab  they  had  set  up  in  the  Carnatic.  The  English  seemed 
to  expect  that  these  letters  would  be  granted  for  nothing  as 
a  matter  of  course ;  or  at  any  rate  as  a  mark  of  gratitude  on 
the  part  of  Shah  Alam  toward  his  foreign  protectors.  But 
Shah  Alam  refused  to  give  any  letters  of  investiture  unless 
a  corresponding  yearly  tribute  was  paid  into  the  imperial 
treasury.  Accordingly  Governor  Vansittart  was  told  that 
if  the  English  would  pay  tribute  for  the  three  districts,  and 
if  the  Nawab  would  also  pay  tribute  for  the  Carnatic,  let- 
ters of  investiture  would  be  granted,  but  not  otherwise. 

At  this  time,  however,  Shah  Alam  would  have  granted 
almost  any  request,  provided  only  that  the  English  would 
conduct  him  to  Delhi.  Strange  to  say,  the  English  were 
prepared  to  carry  out  this  extravagant  scheme,  and  were 
only  prevented  by  sheer  force  of  circumstances.  Mir  Kasim 
refused  to  join  in  a  madcap  expedition  to  Delhi.  Then  again 


344  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

the  services  of  European  soldiers  were  absolutely  necessary; 
and  at  this  juncture  a  European  regiment  was  detained  in 
the  Carnatic  to  carry  on  the  war  against  the  French.  Ac- 
cordingly Vansittart  was  induced  to  negative  a  proposal 
which  would  have  withdrawn  a  British  force  to  a  distance 
of  a  thousand  miles  from  Calcutta,  and  left  it  to  struggle  as 
it  best  could  against  the  successive  attacks  of  Mahrattas  and 
Afghans. 

Shah  Alam  made  Governor  Vansittart  the  same  offer  of 
the  post  of  Dewan  of  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa,  which  had 
been  made  to  Olive.  But  Vansittart  was  afraid  to  embroil 
himself  with  Mir  Kasim,  and  declined  the  offer.  Accord- 
ingly, Shah  Alam  returned  to  Oude,  still  harping  upon  going 
to  Delhi,  and  hoping  that  the  Nawab  Vizier  would  conduct 
him  there. 

Mir  Kasim  had  some  inkling  of  these  negotiations  be- 
tween Shah  Alam  and  the  English;  especially  of  the  offer 
made  to  Vansittart  of  the  post  of  Dewan  for  the  three  Ben- 
gal provinces;  and  he  must  have  been  perfectly  aware  that 
they  foreboded  no  good  to  the  permanence  of  his  own  au- 
thority. Indeed,  from  this  tune  Mir  Kasim  appears  to  have 
made  preparations  for  coming  to  a  collision  with  the  English. 
He  reduced  his  expenditure;  forced  the  Zemindars  to  pay  up 
arrears ;  and  squeezed  Hindu  officials  and  grandees  of  their 
hoarded  wealth.  He  discharged  a  large  portion  of  his  rab- 
ble soldiery  and  formed  an  army  of  picked  men.  He  cut  off 
all  close  relations  with  the  English  by  removing  his  capital 
from  Murshedabad,  which  was  little  more  than  a  hundred 
miles  from  Calcutta,  to  Monghyr,  which  was  more  than 
three  hundred  miles.  At  Monghyr  he  drilled  his  army  hi 
English  fashion,  cast  guns,  manufactured  muskets,  and  pre- 
pared for  war. 

In  1762  disputes  arose  between  the  English  and  Mir 
Kasim  about  the  payment  of  transit  duties.  Bengal  was 
traversed  by  waterways,  and  at  every  important  turning  a 
toll-house  was  set  up  for  collecting  duties  on  all  goods  going 
and  coming.  In  former  times  the  English  had  obtained 


BRITISH   INDIA  345 

firmans  from  the  Moghul  court  at  Delhi,  granting  them  the 
privilege  of  carrying  goods,  duty  free,  to  any  part  of  the 
three  provinces.  Every  boat  claiming  the  privilege  was 
obliged  to  carry  the  English  flag,  and  the  Company's  "per- 
mit" or  dustuck,  bearing  the  Company's  seal.  In  return 
for  this  privilege  the  Company  paid  yearly  a  block  sum  of 
three  thousand  rupees  into  the  Nawab's  treasury  at  Hughli. 

Before  the  battle  of  Plassy  this  right  of  dustuck  was  re- 
stricted by  the  Nawab  to  goods  imported  or  exported  by  sea. 
Moreover,  it  was  confined  to  the  goods  belonging  to  the  Com- 
pany, and  was  never  extended  to  private  goods  belonging  to 
the  Company's  servants.  Indeed,  before  the  battle  of  Plassy 
none  of  the  Company's  servants  had  attempted  to  trade  with 
the  people  of  Bengal  on  their  private  account.  But  after  the 
battle  of  Plassy  there  was  an  entire  change.  The  English 
were  masters,  and  Mir  Jafir  pledged  himself  to  permit  all 
goods  of  every  kind  and  sort  to  be  carried,  duty  free,  under 
the  Company's  dustuck,  without  any  reservation  as  to  whom 
they  belonged. 

The  consequence  was  that  the  Company's  servants,  whose 
incomes  depended  infinitely  more  upon  their  private  trade 
than  upon  their  official  salaries,  began  to  trade  in  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  country,  such  as  salt,  tobacco,  betel,  dried  fish,  oil, 
ghee,  rice,  straw,  ginger,  sugar,  and  opium.  Freedom  from 
duties  enabled  them  to  undersell  all  native  dealers,  and  they 
began  to  absorb  the  whole  commerce  of  the  country,  to  the 
detriment  of  the  Nawab's  revenue,  and  the  ruin  of  native 
dealers.  To  crown  all,  every  servant  of  the  Company  claimed 
the  privilege  of  using  the  Company's  seal  and  selling  dus- 
tucks;  and  young  writers,  whose  official  salaries  were  only 
fifteen  or  twenty  pounds  a  year,  were  to  be  seen  at  Calcutta 
spending  fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand. 

The  conduct  of  the  native  agents  of  the  English  gentle- 
men was  still  more  outrageous.  Bengalis  of  no  character  or 
position,  who  had  been  seen  in  Calcutta  walking  in  rags, 
were  sent  up  country  as  agents  or  gomastas  of  the  English. 
They  assumed  the  dress  of  English  sepoys,  displayed  the 


846  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

English  flag  and  Company's  dustuck,  set  the  Nawab's  ser- 
vants at  defiance,  and  gave  themselves  all  the  airs  of  men 
in  office  and  authority.  They  compelled  the  natives  to  sell 
their  goods  at  half  their  market  value,  and  to  pay  double 
for  all  they  required.  They  thus  bullied  sellers  and  buyers, 
insulted  the  Nawab's  officers,  and  probably  cheated  their 
English  masters.  Mir  Kasim  bitterly  complained  that  the 
English  gentlemen  were  crippling  his  revenues  by  withhold- 
ing payment  of  duties,  while  their  gomastas  were  bringing 
his  government  into  contempt  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  of 
the  country. 

Governor  Vansittart  was  fully  alive  to  these  evils.  So 
was  Mr.  Warren  Hastings,  who  at  this  time  was  a  rising 
man  of  thirty,  and  the  youngest  member  of  the  Calcutta 
council.  Both  Vansittart  and  Hastings  contended  that  trade 
in  the  country  commodities  ought  not  to  be  carried  on  by 
the  Company's  servants  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Nawab's  gov- 
ernment. But  they  spoke  to  men  whose  daily  gains  were  at 
stake,  and  who  were  blind  to  all  other  considerations.  More- 
over, at  this  very  time  complaints  arrived  at  Calcutta  that  the 
Nawab's  officers  had  stopped  the  boats  belonging  to  the  Com- 
pany's servants  and  demanded  payment  of  duties.  The  pas- 
sions of  the  council  were  aroused.  The  majority  demanded 
the  fulfilment  of  the  privilege  granted  by  Mir  Jafir  and  con- 
firmed by  Mir  Kasim;  and  no  amount  of  pleading  from 
Vansittart  or  Hastings  could  lull  the  storm. 

Governor  Vansittart  tried  to  bring  about  a  compromise 
by  paying  a  visit  to  the  Nawab  at  Monghyr ;  but  he  lacked 
judgment  and  firmness  of  temper,  and  vacillated  between 
the  Nawab  and  his  own  council.  In  fact  no  one  but  a 
strong-minded  man  like  Clive  could  have  arbitrated  be- 
tween a  Nawab,  indignant  at  the  loss  of  revenue,  and  a 
body  of  Englishmen,  infuriated  at  the  threatened  loss  of 
income.  The  question  of  right  or  wrong  was  cast  to  the 
winds.  The  Nawab  considered  himself  to  be  an  independ- 
ent prince,  confirmed  in  his  sovereignty  by  the  letters  of  the 
Great  Moghul.  The  majority  of  the  English  considered 


BRITISH   INDIA  347 

that  the  Nawab  was  a  creature  of  their  own,  whom  they 
had  raised  to  the  throne,  and  might  dethrone  at  will. 

To  make  matters  worse,  the  council  at  Calcutta  was  torn 
by  faction.  Hitherto  the  Company's  servants  had  been  gen- 
erally promoted  by  seniority;  but  Mr.  Vansittart  had  been 
brought  up  from  Madras,  and  appointed  Governor  of  the  En- 
glish settlements  in  Bengal,  through  the  personal  influence 
of  Clive.  Vansittart  had  thus  superseded  a  Bengal  civilian 
named  Amyatt;  and  Amyatt  opposed  every  measure  pro- 
posed by  Vansittart,  and  was  warmly  supported  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  Calcutta  council. 

In  1763  Mir  Kasim  brought  matters  to  a  crisis.  He  abol- 
ished the  payment  of  all  duties ;  and  thus  granted  the  same 
privileges  to  his  own  subjects  which  had  been  monopolized 
by  the  English  gentlemen.  This  measure  put  the  question 
on  a  totally  new  footing.  It  stopped  the  sale  of  dustucks. 
It  silenced  all  wrangling  as  to  the  right  of  the  servants  of 
the  Company  to  deal  in  country  commodities.  It  narrowed 
down  all  controversy  to  the  single  point  of  whether  the 
Nawab  had  or  had  not  a  right  to  grant  a  remission  of 
duties  to  his  own  subjects. 

The  majority  of  the  council  at  Calcutta  decided  that  the 
Nawab  had  no  such  right.  The  decision  was  unjust  and 
absurd ;  but  still  the  majority  had  a  show  of  reason  on  their 
side.  They  contended  that  the  spirit  and  intention  of  the 
treaty  arrangements  with  Mir  Jafir  and  Mir  Kasim  were  to 
grant  exclusive  privileges  to  the  English  servants  of  the 
Company ;  and  they  argued  that  the  general  exemption  of 
all  his  subjects  from  the  payment  of  duties  destroyed  the 
value  of  those  exclusive  privileges,  and  was  thus  a  violation 
of  the  spirit  and  intention  of  the  treaties.  They  failed  to  see 
that  the  monopoly  had  been  broken  by  the  force  of  circum- 
stances, and  could  not  be  restored  without  a  violation  of 
public  law.  Warren  Hastings  saw  the  point  clearly.  "The 
Nawab,"  he  said,  "has  granted  a  boon  to  his  subjects;  and 
there  are  no  grounds  for  demanding  that  a  sovereign  prince 
should  withdraw  such  a  boon,  or  for  threatening  him  with 


348  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

war  in  the  event  of  refusal."  In  reply  Hastings  was  told 
that  such  language  became  an  agent  of  the  Nawab  rather 
than  a  member  of  the  Calcutta  council.  Then  followed  a 
retort,  a  blow,  and  a  duel:  and  though  Warren  Hastings 
obtained  an  apolgy  from  the  offender,  the  resolution  of  the 
council  remained  the  same. 

Meanwhile  the  isolated  Englishmen  at  remote  factories 
were  as  violent  as  the  council  at  Calcutta.  If  the  Nawab's 
officers  stopped  English  boats,  they  were  liable  to  be  beaten 
by  English  sepoys;  and  in  some  instances  the  Nawab's  peo- 
ple were  sent  down  to  Calcutta  for  trial  by  the  English  for 
having  obeyed  the  orders  of  their  master.  Mr.  Ellis,  the 
chief  of  the  factory  at  Patna,  rendered  himself  particularly 
obnoxious  to  the  Nawab;  yet  his  position  was  one  of  real 
peril,  for  he  was  posted  with  a  mere  handful  of  European 
troops  more  than  four  hundred  miles  from  Calcutta;  and 
was  moreover  cut  off  from  Calcutta  by  the  Nawab's  capital 
and  army  at  Monghyr. 

In  April,  1763,  the  Calcutta  council  sent  two  of  their 
number,  Messrs.  Amyatt  and  Hay,  to  present  an  ultimatum 
to  the  Nawab.  Before  the  deputies  left  Calcutta  the  Nawab 
had  refused  to  receive  them;  "he  had  abolished  all  duties," 
he  said,  "and  consequently  there  was  nothing  to  settle." 
On  reaching  Monghyr,  however,  they  met  with  a  hospitable 
reception;  for  the  Nawab  performed  all  the  duties  of  an 
Oriental  host  toward  his  European  visitors.  He  feted  them, 
gave  them  presents,  and  entertained  them  with  music  and 
dancing-girls.  But  all  this  while  he  kept  them  under  strict 
surveillance.  He  remembered  the  secret  plots  that  led  to 
the  destruction  of  Suraj-ud-daula,  and  he  was  constantly 
suspecting  his  grandees  of  a  design  to  betray  him  to  the 
English.  He  ordered  the  two  grandsons  of  Jagat  Seth  to  be 
arrested  at  Murshedabad  and  sent  to  Monghyr.  He  sent 
to  Shah  Alam  and  the  Nawab  Vizier  of  Oude  for  help 
against  the  English.  He  was  forever  lying  in  wait  for 
signs  of  some  understanding  between  his  grandees  and  the 
English. 


BRITISH    INDIA  349 

In  May  a  boat  arrived  at  Monghyr  laden  with  goods  for 
the  factory  at  Patna,  and  laden  also  with  five  hundred  fire- 
locks for  the  English  garrison.  The  sight  of  the  arms  filled 
the  Nawab  with  fresh  suspicions  and  alarms.  He  stopped 
the  boat  and  refused  to  allow  the  firelocks  to  go  on  to 
Patna.  He  permitted  Amyatt  to  return  to  Calcutta,  but 
kept  Hay  as  a  hostage  at  Monghyr  for  the  safety  of  certain 
officers  of  his  own  who  had  been  arrested  by  the  English. 

The  story  that  follows  is  a  mournful  page  in  Indian  his- 
tory. Mr.  Ellis,  at  Patna,  was  in  correspondence  with 
Amyatt,  and  he  foresaw  that  the  moment  Amyatt  reached 
Calcutta  the  council  would  declare  war  against  the  Nawab. 
The  factory  in  the  suburbs  of  Patna  would  then  be  in  ex- 
treme peril.  It  was  untenable,  and  might  be  easily  sur- 
rounded and  captured  by  the  Nawab's  troops.  Accordingly 
Mr.  Ellis  resolved  to  attack  and  occupy  the  town  and  fort  of 
Patna  as  a  better  place  of  defence  in  the  event  of  a  war. 

At  early  morning  on  the  25th  of  June,  1763,  the  English 
took  the  town  of  Patna  by  surprise;  the  native  commandant 
fled  in  a  panic  with  most  of  his  troops.  The  English  next 
attacked  the  fort  but  were  repulsed.  They  then  began  to 
disperse  over  the  streets  and  bazars.  The  sepoys  were  plun- 
dering shops  and  houses,  and  European  soldiers  were  getting 
drunk  and  incapable.  There  was  no  idea  of  danger,  and 
consequently  no  measures  were  taken  for  the  defence  of  the 
town  against  any  return  of  the  fugitive  garrison. 

Suddenly,  at  hot  noon,  the  flying  garrison  recovered  heart 
and  re-entered  the  town  of  Patna.  They  had  been  joined 
by  a  reinforcement  coming  from  Monghyr,  and  had,  more- 
over, been  told  that  the  fort  at  Patna  was  still  holding  out 
against  the  English.  They  met  with  little  resistance  and 
were  soon  in  possession  of  the  town.  The  English  were 
bewildered  and  overpowered,  but  they  managed  to  spike 
their  guns  and  retreat  to  the  factory. 

The  English  in  the  factory  were  utterly  cast  down  by  the 
disaster.  They  saw  that  they  were  being  surrounded  by 
the  Nawab's  troops;  and  they  hurried  off  to  their  boats  with 


850  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

the  vain  hope  of  escaping  up  the  river  Ganges  into  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Nawab  Vizier  of  Oude.  But  they  found  every 
outlet  closed  against  them,  and  instead  of  cutting  their  way 
through  the  Nawab's  troops  they  committed  the  fatal  error 
of  surrendering  to  Asiatics.  They  were  all  sent  as  prisoners 
to  Monghyr,  and  found  that  they  were  not  alone  in  their 
misfortunes.  The  factory  of  Cossimbazar,  in  the  suburb 
of  Murshedabad,  had  been  captured  and  plundered  by  the 
Nawab's  troops;  and  all  the  English  at  Cossimbazar  had 
been  sent  to  Monghyr  as  prisoners  of  war. 

All  this  while  Mir  Kasim  had  been  waiting  at  Monghyr 
in  an  agony  of  suspense.  News  arrived  of  the  loss  of  Patna, 
and  filled  him  with  despair.  At  dead  of  night  other  tidings 
arrived ;  the  town  had  been  recovered,  and  the  English  were 
at  his  mercy.  The  Nawab  was  intoxicated  with  joy  and 
exultation.  He  ordered  the  kettle-drums  to  announce  the 
glorious  victory  to  the  sleeping  city.  Next  morning  every 
grandee  in  Monghyr  hurried  to  the  palace  with  presents 
and  congratulations;  and  Mir  Kasim  sent  out  circulars 
ordering  his  officers  throughout  Behar  and  Bengal  to  attack 
the  English  wherever  they  were  to  be  found,  and  to  slaugh- 
ter them  on  the  spot  or  bring  them  away  as  prisoners  to 
Monghyr. 

The  capture  of  the  English  factory  at  Cossimbazar  was 
the  first  result  of  this  cruel  order,  but  Mr.  Amyatt  was  the 
first  victim.  The  unfortunate  gentleman  was  proceeding 
down  the  river  toward  Calcutta,  when  his  boat  was  hailed 
by  a  detachment  of  the  Nawab 's  troops,  and  he  was  invited 
by  the  native  commander  to  an  entertainment  on  shore. 
The  dancing-girls  were  there,  but  Amyatt  had  his  misgiv- 
ings, and  sent  his  excuses.  Next  he  was  peremptorily 
ordered  to  come  on  shore,  but  refused  to  go.  Shots  were 
fired;  the  Nawab's  troops  boarded  the  boat.  Amyatt  went 
ashore  and  mounted  the  bank  with  a  pistol  in  each  hand ; 
but  he  was  overwhelmed  by  numbers,  and  hacked  to  pieces, 
and  his  head  was  carried  off  in  triumph  to  the  Nawab  at 
Monghyr. 


BRITISH    INDIA  351 

The  news  of  the  barbarous  murder  of  Mr.  Amyatt  filled 
the  Calcutta  council  with  horror ;  and  the  majority  clamored 
for  prompt  vengeance  on  the  Nawab.  Vansittart  begged 
them  to  remember  that  Mr.  Ellis,  and  a  multitude  of  En- 
glishmen from  Patna  and  Cossimbazar,  were  at  the  mercy 
of  Mir  Kasim ;  and  that  it  would  be  better  to  make  terms, 
and  secure  the  lives  of  fheir  fellow-countrymen,  before  they 
talked  of  war  and  revenge.  But  his  warning  was  unheeded; 
scarcely  a  soul  in  the  council  would  listen  to  his  words. 
They  loudly  declared — and  they  wrote  out  their  declaration 
on  paper  and  affixed  their  signatures — that  they  would  not 
come  to  terms  with  Mir  Kasim,  nor  defer  their  revenge, 
although  every  prisoner  in  his  hands  was  slaughtered  to  a 
man. 

The  council  then  left  the  chamber,  and  proceeded  to  the 
house  of  Mir  Jafir  within  the  precincts  of  Calcutta,  and 
proclaimed  him  Nawab  of  Bengal,  Behar  and  Orissa.  The 
ex- Nawab  was  overjoyed  at  his  unexpected  restoration  to  a 
throne,  and  readily  agreed  to  everything  that  the  council 
wanted.  He  pledged  himself  to  compensate  the  Company 
and  its  servants  for  all  losses;  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the 
war  against  Mir  Kasim ;  and  to  reverse  the  measures  of  Mir 
Kasim,  by  collecting  the  duties  from  his  own  subjects,  and 
permitting  the  English  servants  of  the  Company  to  trade  in 
the  commodities  of  the  country  duty  free. 

In  July  the  avenging  army  of  the  English  was  on  its  way 
to  Plassy  and  Patna  accompanied  by  Mir  Jafir.  The  En- 
glish captured  Murshedabad  and  defeated  the  flower  of  the 
Nawab's  army;  but  they  found  the  enemy  stronger  than 
they  had  anticipated.  The  Nawab 's  troops  had  been  drilled 
and  disciplined  in  English  fashion,  and  fought  better  than 
any  native  army  had  ever  fought  before  under  a  native  com- 
mander. But  the  steadiness  of  the  European  forces  over- 
came every  obstacle;  and  after  a  series  of  victories,  they 
began  to  advance  toward  Monghyr. 

Meanwhile  Mir  Kasim  was  inflamed  by  his  reverses  to 
commit  fresh  acts  of  cruelty.  He  ordered  several  Hindu 


352  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

prisoners  to  execution,  including  the  two  grandsons  of  Jagat 
Seth.  He  collected  his  scattered  forces  at  Monghyr,  and 
finally  proceeded  to  Patna,  carrying  with  him  all  his  English 
prisoners,  to  the  number  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  souls. 

Terrible  news  followed  him  to  Patna.  The  English  had 
captured  his  new  capital  at  Monghyr.  Then  followed  one 
of  the  most  awful  massacres  of  Europeans  which  is  recorded 
in  the  history  of  British  India.  In  a  paroxysm  of  rage  at 
the  loss  of  Monghyr,  Mir  Kasim  ordered  the  English  pris- 
oners to  be  put  to  death  in  cold  blood.  The  native  com- 
manders shrank  from  the  slaughter  of  unarmed  men ;  but  a 
European  deserter  of  the  worst  character  agreed  to  perform 
the  hateful  service,  which  has  handed  down  his  name  to 
everlasting  infamy. 

A  morose  Franco-German,  named  "Walter  Reinhardt,  had 
deserted  more  than  once  from  the  English  to  the  French  and 
back  again.  He  had  re-enlisted  in  an  English  regiment 
under  the  name  of  Somers;  but  his  comrades  nicknamed 
him  Sombre  on  account  of  his  evil  expression.  Finally  he 
had  deserted  to  the  service  of  Mir  Kasim,  and  obtained  the 
command  of  a  brigade  under  the  Hinduized  name  of  Sumru. 

The  English  prisoners  were  lodged  in  a  house  or  palace 
which  had  belonged  to  Haji  Ahmad,  the  ill-fated  brother  of 
Alivardi  Khan.  It  was  a  large  range  of  buildings  with  a 
square  court  in  the  centre,  like  a  college  quadrangle.  On 
the  4th  of  October,  1763,  the  prisoners  were  deprived  of 
their  knives  and  forks  by  Sumru's  orders,  under  pretence 
of  a  feast  on  the  morrow.  The  morrow  came.  The  house 
was  surrounded  with  sepoys.  Messrs.  Ellis,  Hay,  and  Lush- 
ington  were  called  upon  to  come  out,  and  were  slaughtered 
outside.  The  sepoys  climbed  to  the  roof  of  the  buildings, 
and  fired  upon  the  prisoners  in  the  square,  but  were  attacked 
with  brickbats,  bottles,  and  articles  of  furniture.  They  were 
struck  with  admiration  at  the  courage  of  the  English.  They 
cried  out  that  they  would  not  fire  upon  men  without  arms. 
"They  were  sepoys,"  they  said,  "and  not  executioners!" 
But  Sumru  was  furious  at  the  hesitation.  He  struck  down 


BRITISH    INDIA  353 

the  foremost  with  his  own  hands,  and  compelled  them  to  fire 
until  every  prisoner  was  slain. 

The  massacre  at  Patna  sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  the 
British  empire.  The  errors  of  the  victims  were  forgotten  in 
their  sufferings,  and  the  cry  for  vengeance  was  universal. 
The  Nawab  was  still  hoping  that  the  English  would  come 
to  terms ;  possibly  he  thought  that  they  would  be  frightened 
into  an  accommodation ;  but  he  soon  found  that  the  bloody 
deed  had  sealed  his  doom.  In  November  Patna  was  taken 
by  storm,  and  Mir  Kasim  fled  away  into  Oude  with  his 
family  and  treasures,  accompanied  by  the  infamous  Sumru. 

The  Nawab  Vizier  had  bound  himself  by  an  oath  on  the 
Koran  to  support  Mir  Kasim  against  the  English ;  but  his 
only  object  was  to  secure  the  Bengal  provinces  for  himself. 
The  moment  was  most  favorable  for  an  advance  of  the 
Nawab  Vizier  against  the  English.  The  victorious  army, 
which  had  fought  its  way  from  Plassy  to  Patna,  was  in  a 
state  of  mutiny.  Soldiers  and  sepoys  had  expected  extraor- 
dinary rewards  for  their  extraordinary  successes,  but  had 
received  nothing  beyond  their  pay  and  were  starving  for 
want  of  provisions;  and  they  had  talked  themselves  into 
such  a  state  of  disaffection  that  many  were  prepared  to 
desert  their  colors  and  go  over  to  the  enemy. 

Weeks  and  months  passed  away.  In  April,  1764,  the 
Nawab  Vizier,  accompanied  by  Shah  Alam,  invaded  Behar 
with  what  appeared  to  be  an  overwhelming  army.  The 
English  force  was  encamped  on  the  frontier,  but  was  dis- 
heartened at  the  numbers  of  the  enemy,  and  retreated  slowly 
toward  Patna.  But  the  invading  army  is  described  by  a 
native  eye-witness  as  a  mob  of  highwaymen.1  The  lawless 
soldiery  of  the  Nawab  Vizier  fought,  murdered  and  plun- 
dered each  other  in  the  middle  of  the  camp;  or  went  out 
killing  and  marauding  in  the  surrounding  country.  A  battle 
was  fought  in  the  neighborhood  of  Patna,  and  the  Nawab 
"Vizier  was  repulsed.  He  then  threw  over  Mb*  Kasim,  and 
tried  to  make  separate  terms  with  Mir  Jafir ;  but  he  insisted 

1  Gholam  Husain  All,  in  the  Siyar-ul-Mutaqherin. 


354  HISTORY   OF   INDjtA 

on  the  cession  of  Behar.  At  the  same  time  the  English  in- 
sisted on  the  surrender  of  Mir  Kasim  and  Sumru;  and  the 
Nawab  Vizier,  unscrupulous  as  he  was,  shrunk  from  the  in- 
famy of  surrendering  fugitives.  Accordingly  nothing  was 
done,  and  as  the  rainy  season  was  approaching,  the  Nawab 
Vizier  returned  to  Oude. 

Subsequently  Major  Hector  Munro  arrived  at  Patna  with 
reinforcements.  He  found  the  English  troops  threatening  to 
desert  to  the  enemy  and  carry  off  their  officers.  Shortly  after 
his  arrival,  an  entire  battalion  of  sepoys  went  off  to  join  the 
Nawab  Vizier  with  their  arms  and  accoutrements.  Munro 
pursued  them  in  the  night,  found  them  asleep,  and  brought 
them  back  as  his  prisoners.  He  ordered  the  native  officers 
to  select  twenty-four  ringleaders,  and  to  try  them  by  court- 
martial.  The  whole  were  found  guilty  of  mutiny  and  deser- 
tion ;  and  Munro  ordered  eight  to  be  blown  from  guns  on  the 
spot,  and  sent  the  rest  to  other  cantonments  to  be  executed 
in  like  manner.  He  then  told  the  remainder  that  if  they 
were  not  satisfied  with  their  present  pay,  they  might  lay 
down  their  arms  and  be  dismissed  the  service,  for  they  would 
get  no  better  terms.  The  delinquents  expressed  their  peni- 
tence, and  promised  to  serve  the  Company  very  faithfully 
for  the  future. ' 

In  September  the  rainy  season  was  over,  and  Major  Munro 
took  the  field.  On  the  23d  of  October  he  defeated  the  Nawab 
Vizier  in  the  decisive  battle  of  Buxar ;  and  the  English  army 
then  advanced  to  Lucknow.  The  Nawab  Vizier  fled  away 
to  the  Rohilla  country;  while  Shah  Alam  joined  the  English, 
complaining  that  he  had  been  set  up  as  the  Great  Moghul, 
and  then  kept  as  a  state  prisoner  by  his  own  Vizier. 

Next  to  Plassy,  the  battle  of  Buxar  is  the  most  famous  in 
the  history  of  British  conquest  in  India.  It  broke  up  the 
strength  and  prestige  of  Shuja-ud-daula,  the  last  and  great- 

1  Mr.  Mill  tells  the  story  somewhat  differently,  but  here  as  elsewhere  the 
original  authorities  have  been  consulted.  The  narrative  in  the  text  is  based  on 
Major  Munro's  own  account  of  the  transaction  in  a  letter  to  Governor  Yansittar* 
dated  16th  September,  1769. 


BRITISH   INDIA  355 

est  of  the  Moghul  Viceroys  of  provinces,  excepting  perhaps 
the  Nizam.  It  threw  the  whole  of  the  territories  of  Oude 
into  the  hands  of  the  English ;  placed  the  Moghul  Padishah 
under  British  protection ;  and  established  the  British  nation 
as  the  foremost  power  in  India. 

The  Nawab  Vizier  was  seeking  the  help  of  the  Rohilla 
Afghans  and  the  Mahrattas,  while  his  minister  was  trying 
in  the  name  of  his  master  to  make  peace  with  the  English. 
The  demand  for  the  surrender  of  Mir  Kasim  and  the  infa- 
mous Sumru  was  the  main  difficulty.  But  Mir  Kasim  had 
been  despoiled  by  the  Nawab  Vizier  of  the  bulk  of  his  treas- 
ures, and  fled  away  to  the  northwest,  where  he  subsequently 
perished  in  obscurity.  As  regards  Sumru  it  was  proposed 
on  the  part  of  the  Nawab  Vizier  to  invite  the  miscreant  to 
an  entertainment,  and  put  him  to  death  in  the  presence  of 
any  English  gentleman  who  might  be  deputed  to  witness 
the  assassination.1 

About  this  time  a  Hindu  grandee  named  Raja  Shitab  Rai 
came  to  the  front.  He  was  a  shrewd,  keen-witted  native, 
who  had  started  in  life  as  a  small  office  clerk  at  Delhi,  and 
risen  to  posts  of  power  and  wealth  in  Bengal  and  Behar.  He 
was  a  fair  type  of  the  Hindus  of  capacity,  who  made  them- 
selves useful,  and  were  ultimately  rewarded  with  the  title  of 
Raja.  He  was  demonstrative  in  his  friendship  for  the  En- 
glish, and  busied  himself  in  all  that  was  going  on.  He  was 
an  agent  for  the  English  in  the  negotiations  with  the  Nawab 
Vizier.  He  brought  over  the  Raja  of  Benares,  Bulwunt 
Singh,  from  the  cause  of  the  Nawab  Vizier  to  that  of  the 

1  The  after  career  of  Sumru  or  Sombre  is  a  strange  episode  in  Indian  history. 
He  deserted  the  Nawab  Vizier  with  a  battalion  of  sepoys  and  a  body  of  Euro- 
pean outcasts,  the  skum  of  different  nations.  He  entered  the  service  of  the  Raja 
of  the  Jats,  the  ancestor  of  the  present  Raja  of  Bhurtpore.  Lastly  he  entered 
the  service  of  the  so-called  imperial  army  of  Moghuls  under  Najib-ud-daula  the 
Rohilla.  Subsequently  he  married  a  dancing-girl,  who  afterward  became  known 
as  the  Begum  Sombre. 

The  villain  who  murdered  the  English  at  Patna  afterward  became  a  prince, 
and  acquired  great  wealth,  after  the  manner  of  Hindu  and  Muhammadan  advent- 
urers of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  territory  of  Sirdhana  was  granted  him  in 
jaghir  by  the  Moghul  court  for  the  maintenance  of  his  sepoys  and  Europeans. 
He  died,  in  1778,  leaving  his  wealth  and  principality  to  the  Begum  Sombre. 


356  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

English.  He  had  been  mixed  up  in  some  secret  intrigues 
for  inducing  the  commanders  of  fortresses  in  Oude  territory 
to  surrender  to  the  English.  In  a  word,  he  lost  no  opportu- 
nity of  ingratiating  himself  with  the  English  in  the  hope  of 
profiting  by  their  ascendency. 

Meanwhile  the  English  refused  to  listen  to  the  proposals 
for  the  assassination  of  Sumru.  They  took  possession  of 
the  territories  of  the  Nawab  Vizier;  appointed  officers  to  the 
command  of  the  several  districts;  and  intrusted  the  settle- 
ment of  the  revenue  and  judicial  administration  to  Shitab 
Rai  and  Bulwunt  Singh. 

The  Nawab  Vizier  was  still  reluctant  to  come  to  terms. 
He  sought  the  help  of  Rohilla  Afghans  and  Mahrattas.  The 
Bohilla  chiefs  engaged  to  join  him,  but  did  nothing.  The 
Mahrattas  under  Mulhar  Rao  Holkar  were  eager  for  the 
plunder  of  Oude,  and  readily  marched  to  his  support.  But 
Holkar  was  not  accustomed  to  English  artillery.  He  and 
his  Mahratta  horsemen  advanced  against  the  English  army, 
but  were  received  with  such  a  terrible  fire  that  they  galloped 
off  in  consternation. 

The  Nawab  Vizier  saw  that  his  cause  was  ruined.  He 
complained  bitterly  of  the  Rohilla  chiefs,  but  they  plied  him 
with  excuses.  He  had  no  alternative  but  to  proceed  to  the 
English  camp  and  throw  himself  upon  the  mercy  of  the  con- 
querors. Raja  Shitab  Rai  was  again  busy  as  a  negotiator; 
and  the  Nawab  Vizier  was  led  to  believe  that  the  payment 
of  fifty  lakhs,  or  half  a  million  sterling,  would  enable  him  to 
recover  his  lost  territories. 

About  this  time  there  was  a  change  of  Governors  at  Cal- 
cutta. Vansittart  returned  to  England,  and  was  succeeded 
by  a  Mr.  Spencer ;  while  a  scheme  was  brewing  for  making 
over  Oude  to  Najib-ud-daula,  the  Delhi  minister,  and  con- 
ducting Shah  Alam  to  Delhi.  The  scheme  came  to  nothing, 
but  it  probably  accounts  for  the  reluctance  of  the  Rohilla 
chiefs  to  join  the  Nawab  Vizier.1 

1  The  scheme  of  Governor  Spencer  was  more  extravagant  than  that  of  Gov- 
ernor Yansittart.  The  proposal  to  conduct  Shah  Alam  to  Delhi  was  wild  but 


BRITISH   INDIA  357 

Mir  Jafir  died  in  January,  1765 ;  and  the  appointment  of 
a  successor  to  the  Nawabship  of  Bengal  and  Behar  was  a 
question  of  grave  importance.  Spencer  was  only  a  tempo- 
rary Governor.  He  knew  that  Olive,  now  an  Irish  Peer, 
was  coming  to  Bengal  with  the  powers  of  a  dictator;  and  he 
would  have  acted  wisely  if  he  had  awaited  the  arrival  of 
Lord  Olive ;  but  he  resolved  to  forestall  Lord  Olive  in  the 
disposal  of  the  vacant  throne  at  Murshedabad.  There  were 
two  claimants  to  the  succession,  namely,  an  illegitimate  son 
of  Mir  Jafir,  aged  twenty,  and  a  legitimate  grandson,  aged 
six,  a  son  of  the  deceased  Miran ;  and  the  question  was,  which 
of  the  two  was  likely  to  prove  the  most  subservient  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  Company.  No  doubt  the  boy  would  have  been 
most  amenable  to  the  will  of  the  English ;  but  Spencer  chose 
the  elder  claimant,  in  spite  of  his  illegitimacy,  as  the  most 
amenable  to  the  pecuniary  rapacity  of  himself  and  his  col- 
leagues. 

Four  members  of  the  Calcutta  council  proceeded  as  a 
deputation  to  Murshedabad,  and  made  a  hurried  bargain 
with  a  clever  Mussulman  grandee  named  Muhammad  Reza 
Khan.  It  was  agreed  that  the  illegitimate  son,  aged  twenty, 
should  be  proclaimed  Nawab ;  that  Muhammad  Reza  Khan 
should  exercise  all  real  power,  under  the  name  of  Naib,  or 
deputy  Nawab ;  and  that  twenty  lakhs  of  rupees,  or  about 
two  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling,  should  be  distributed 
to  the  Governor  and  certain  select  members  of  the  council 
at  Calcutta. 

The  bargaining  at  Murshedabad,  and  virtual  sale  of  Ben- 
gal and  Behar  to  Muhammad  Reza  Khan,  was  the  last  public 


possible ;  and  had  an  English  officer,  endowed  with  the  genius  of  an  Alexander 
or  a  Napoleon,  been  appointed  to  the  command,  he  might  have  established  a 
British  empire  over  Hindustan.  But  the  proposed  cession  of  all  the  territories 
of  the  Nawab  Vizier  of  Oude  to  his  rival,  the  Afghan  guardian  at  Delhi,  would 
have  been  ruinous  to  the  English.  There  was  only  one  way  by  which  Najib- 
ud-daula  could  have  occupied  Oude,  namely,  by  parcelling  out  the  whole  country 
as  military  jaghirs,  or  fiefs,  among  the  Rohilla  chiefs.  This  occupation  would 
have  amounted  to  the  re-establishment  of  an  Afghan  empire  down  the  valleys 
of  the  Jumna  and  Ganges  as  far  as  the  Carumnassa,  which  would  have  proved 
a  perpetual  menace  to  Behar  and  Bengal. 


358  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

act  of  the  counting-house  administrators  of  Calcutta.  The 
Company's  servants  at  this  period  were  no  better  and  no 
worse  than  the  Pretorian  Guards,  who  sold  the  throne  of  the 
Caesars  to  the  highest  bidder ;  but  they  were  followed  by  men 
of  the  stamp  of  Robert  Clive  and  Warren  Hastings,  who 
knew  something  of  courts  and  armies,  and  were  anxious  to 
maintain  a  character  in  the  eyes  of  their  countrymen.  The 
transaction,  however,  was  strictly  mercantile;  and  had  it 
been  concluded  in  the  name  of  the  East  India  Company, 
and  not  as  an  underhand  stroke  of  private  trade,  it  might 
have  been  regarded  by  the  merchants  of  Leadenhall  Street 
as  a  financial  success.  Indeed  commercial  statesmen  might 
still  be  found  who  would  sell  India  back  to  native  princes  as 
the  readiest  means  of  getting  rid  of  the  supposed  incubus  of 
an  Indian  empire.  But  crimes  against  history  are  avenged 
by  history.  The  men  who  sold  Bengal  and  Behar  to  fill 
their  own  pockets  are  remembered  only  to  be  despised.  But 
the  soldiers  and  administrators  that  came  after  them,  who 
delivered  the  native  populations  from  the  bondage  of  Orien- 
tal despotism,  and  labored  to  raise  them  to  the  level  of  En- 
glishmen, have  left  a  mark  upon  the  people  of  India  which 
will  remain  for  all  time. 


BRITISH   INDIA  369 


CHAPTER   IV 
DOUBLE    GOVERNMENT— OLIVE,    ETC. 

A.D.  1765  TO  1771 

LORD  OLIVE,  who  at  this  time  was  on  his  way  to 
India,  was  forty  years  of  age.  He  had  been  named 
by  nearly  all  parties  in  England  as  the  only  man  who 
could  save  the  Company's  affairs  in  India.  He  reached  Ma- 
dras in  April,  1765,  and  was  greeted  with  startling  tidings. 
Nizam  AH,  who  had  murdered  his  brother  Salabut  Jung  in 
1763,  had  invaded  the  Carnatic  with  unusual  ferocity;  but 
had  been  compelled  to  retire  to  Hyderabad  before  the  united 
forces  of  the  English  and  Muhammad  Ali.  This  matter  was 
allowed  to  stand  over ;  Lord  Olive  had  already  made  up  his 
mind  how  to  deal  with  the  Nizam.  But  another  event  struck 
him  nearer  home.  He  was  told  that  Mir  Jafir  had  died  in 
the  previous  January. 

Lord  Olive  was  delighted  at  the  news,  for  it  enabled  him 
to  carry  out  a  part  of  the  grand  scheme  that  he  had  unfolded 
to  Pitt  more  than  seven  years  before ;  namely,  to  take  over 
the  sovereignty  of  Bengal  and  Behar  in  the  name  of  the  East 
India  Company,  but  to  veil  this  sovereignty  from  the  public 
eye  by  the  forms  of  Moghul  imperialism.  He  wanted  a  Na- 
wab  who  should  be  only  a  cipher ;  and  the  legitimate  grand- 
son of  Mir  Jafir,  aged  six,  was  ready  to  his  hand.  Lord 
Olive  proposed  to  leave  the  native  administration  under  the 
puppet  Nawab  and  native  ministers,  who  should  be  wholly 
dependent  on  the  English ;  but  to  take  over  the  entire  revenue 
of  the  provinces.  He  calculated  that  after  paying  for  the 


360  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

defence  of  the  country,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  state 
pageant,  there  would  remain  a  yearly  surplus  of  one  or  two 
millions  sterling  for  the  use  of  the  Company. 

Lord  Olive  reached  Calcutta  in  May,  and  soon  discovered 
the  corrupt  transactions  of  Governor  Spencer.  Of  course  he 
was  furious  with  rage.  Governor  Spencer  and  his  council 
had  forestalled  him  only  to  fill  their  own  pockets.  They  had 
placed  a  grown-up  Nawab  on  the  throne  only  to  facilitate 
their  corrupt  bargaining  with  Muhammad  Reza  Khan.  Clive 
declared  in  his  wrath  that  the  whites  had  united  with  the 
blacks  to  empty  the  public  treasury.  In  vain  he  was  told 
that  the  Governor  and  council  had  only  followed  the  exam- 
ple which  he  had  himself  set  at  Murshedabad  after  the  battle 
of  Plassy.  He  retorted  that  he  had  rendered  great  public 
services  by  his  victory  at  Plassy,  while  Spencer  and  the  oth- 
ers had  rendered  no  services  whatever;  that  after  Plassy 
presents  had  been  permitted,  but  that  at  the  death  of  Mir 
Jafir  they  had  been  strictly  forbidden  by  the  Court  of 
Directors.  But  Lord  Clive  was  powerless  to  compel  the 
offenders  to  refund,  or  to  punish  them  in  any  way  what- 
ever; and  most  of  them  resigned  the  service  and  returned 
to  England  to  fight  the  question  with  the  Directors  in  the 
courts  of  law. 

Lord  Clive  made  the  best  arrangement  he  could  under 
the  circumstances.  He  accepted  the  Nawab  who  had  been 
set  up  by  Governor  Spencer.  He  left  Muhammad  Reza  Khan 
to  act  as  deputy  Nawab  at  Murshedabad,  and  he  appointed 
Raja  Shitab  Rai  to  act  hi  the  same  capacity  at  Patna.  Both 
men  wielded  enormous  powers.  They  were  at  the  head  of 
law  and  justice;  they  superintended  the  collections  of  rev- 
enue; and  they  were  supposed  to  make  over  the  whole  of 
the  proceeds  to  the  English.  But  the  story  of  their  doings 
or  misdoings  will  be  told  hereafter. 

Lord  Clive  felt  that  while  the  English  exercised  sovereign 
powers  in  Bengal  and  Behar,  it  was  necessary  to  conceal  that 
sovereignty  from  the  eyes  of  the  world;  as  it  would  only 
excite  the  murmurs  of  the  English  parliament,  and  provoke 


BRITISH   INDIA  361 

the  jealousies  of  French  and  D  utch  rivals.  *  Accordingly  Lord 
Clive  planned  that  the  English  were  to  act  solely  in  the  name 
of  the  cipher  Nawab,  and  under  the  affectation  of  being  the 
officers  of  the  Great  Moghul.  In  other  words,  the  English 
were  to  accept  from  Shah  Alam  the  post  of  Dewan,  or  mana- 
ger of  the  revenues  of  the  Bengal  provinces ;  to  pay  the  sala- 
ries of  the  Nawab  and  his  officials;  to  set  aside  a  fixed  yearly 
sum  as  tribute  to  the  Great  Moghul  as  represented  by  Shah 
Alam ;  to  provide  for  the  defence  of  the  provinces  against  all 
external  and  internal  enemies;"  and  to  transfer  the  surplus 
revenue  to  the  coffers  of  the  Company. 

Lord  Olive's  idea  was  to  resuscitate  the  Moghul  empire 
under  Moghul  forms,  while  keeping  Shah  Alam  as  a  puppet 
or  pageant  in  his  own  hands.  He  utterly  scouted  Spencer's 
scheme  of  policy.  To  have  ceded  Oude  to  the  Rohilla  Af- 
ghans would  have  drawn  the  Afghans  to  the  frontier  of 
Behar.  To  have  conducted  Shah  Alam  to  Delhi  would  have 
carried  the  English  army  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  frontier, 
and  have  embroiled  the  British  authorities  with  Afghans  or 
Mahrattas.  Lord  Clive  was  anxious  to  keep  Shah  Alam  in 
the  Bengal  provinces — at  Patna,  if  not  at  Calcutta;  and  to 
set  him  up  as  a  symbol  of  the  Great  Moghul.  In  other 
words,  Shah  Alam  was  to  have  been  an  imperial  idol ;  and 
the  English  were  to  have  issued  their  orders  and  commands 
as  the  oracles  of  the  idol. 

At  the  same  time  Lord  Clive  determined  to  restore  Oude 
to  the  Nawab  Vizier.  It  was  too  remote  from  Calcutta  for 
the  English  to  hold  it  as  a  conquered  territory.  Its  defence 
would  have  drawn  the  European  troops  far  away  to  the 
northwest,  and  left  Behar  and  Bengal  exposed  to  the  de- 
mands or  assaults  of  Mahrattas  or  Afghans.  Its  adminis- 


1  The  Seven  Years'  War  between  Great  Britain  and  France  was  brought  to 
a  close  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1763,  under  which  Chandernagore  and  Pondi- 
cherry  were  restored  to  the  French. 

8  The  military  defence  of  a  province  under  Moghul  rule  was  not  the  duty  of 
the  Dewan,  but  of  the  Nawab  Nazim.     The  exigencies  of  the  time  compelled 
Lord  Clive  to  overlook  the  niceties  of  Moghul  forms  as  regards  the  relative  func- 
tions of  Dewan  and  Nawab  Nazim. 
X — 16  INDIA.    VOL.  I. 


362  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

tration  would  have  been  out  of  the  reach  of  all  control  from 
Calcutta.  But  the  restoration  of  Oude  to  the  Nawab  Vizier 
would  relieve  the  Company  of  all  further  expense  and  re- 
sponsibility, and  convert  the  government  of  Oude  into  a 
natural  barrier  for  Behar  and  Bengal  against  the  Afghans 
and  Mahrattas  of  Hindustan. 

Full  of  these  grand  schemes,  Lord  Clive  left  Calcutta, 
and  hastened  up  the  Ganges  to  meet  Shah  Alam  and  the 
N"awab  Vizier  at  Allahabad.  There,  to  use  the  language 
of  a  native  contemporary,  he  disposed  of  provinces  with  as 
much  ease  as  if  he  had  been  selling  cattle.1  Without  any 
of  the  endless  negotiations,  cavillings,  and  delays,  which 
are  the  pride  and  glory  of  native  diplomatists,  he  settled  all 
questions  by  his  own  authority  as  the  supreme  arbiter  of  the 
destinies  of  Hindustan.  The  Nawab  Vizier  eagerly  agreed 
to  receive  back  his  lost  territories;  to  pay  a  sum  of  half  a 
million  sterling  toward  the  expenses  of  the  late  war;  and  to 
cede  by  way  of  tribute  to  Shah  Alam  the  revenues  of  Korah 
and  Allahabad.  On  the  other  hand,  Shah  Alam  was  equally 
ready  to  accept  the  provinces  of  Allahabad  and  Korah  in 
lieu  of  a  tribute  which  for  many  years  had  never  been  paid. 
But  Shah  Alam  refused  to  remove  to  Patna,  or  to  any  other 
place  in  Behar  or  Bengal.  He  was  much  chagrined  at  the 
refusal  of  Lord  Clive  to  conduct  him  to  Delhi;  and  he  was 
still  bent  on  going  there  at  the  first  opportunity.  Accord- 
ingly he  decided  on  living  at  Allahabad  in  the  empty  state 
of  a  Great  Moghul  without  a  kingdom,  but  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  Shuja-ud-daula  as  his  Vizier.  A  British 
force  was  posted  at  Allahabad  for  his  protection ;  and  it  may 
be  remarked  that  at  this  period,  and  for  years  afterward,  the 
forces  of  the  Company  were  formed  into  three  brigades,  one 
of  which  was  posted  at  Monghyr,  a  second  at  Patna,  and  a 
third  at  Allahabad. 

The  affairs  of  the  Bengal  provinces  were  settled  with  the 
same  ease  as  those  of  Oude.  Shah  Alam  gave  letters  patent 

1  Siyar-ul-Mutaqherin,  by  Grholam  Husain  AIL     Calcutta  translation. 


BRITISH   INDIA  363 

to  Lord  Olive  investing  the  English  Company  with  the  office 
of  Dewan;  and  in  return  Lord  Olive  agreed  that  the  English 
should  pay  him  as  Padishah  a  yearly  tribute  of  something 
like  a  quarter  of  a  million  sterling,  or  about  the  same  amount 
that  Mir  Kasim  had  agreed  to  give  Shah  Alam  under  the 
settlement  of  1761. 

It  has  already  been  explained  that  under  the  constitution 
of  the  later  Moghul  empire  every  province  was  administered 
by  two  officers,  a  Nawab  and  a  Dewan.  The  Nawab,  or 
Nawab  Nazim,  held  the  military  command,  and  in  that 
capacity  superintended  the  administration  of  law,  justice, 
and  police.  The  Dewan  was  the  accountant-general  or 
finance  minister,  and  looked  solely  after  the  revenue  and 
expenditure. 

Under  Lord  Olive's  scheme  the  Company  became  nomi- 
nally Dewan,  and  practically  Nawab  Nazim ;  for  the  English 
compelled  the  young  Nawab  Nazim  to  disband  his  rabble 
army,  and  took  upon  themselves  the  military  defence  of  the 
country,  as  well  as  the  disposal  of  the  revenue.  The  duties 
of  the  Nawab  Nazim  were  thus  limited  to  the  nominal  super- 
intendence of  law,  justice,  and  police;  and  it  will  be  seen 
hereafter  that  the  English  were  soon  forced  by  the  general 
anarchy  to  take  these  branches  of  the  administration  into 
their  own  hands.  Thus  within  a  few  years  the  Nawab 
Nazim  dwindled  into  a  pageant,  having  no  duties  to  perform 
beyond  the  superintendence  of  his  own  household.1 

The  political  result  of  this  arrangement  was  that  the 
English  remained  in  military  charge  of  Bengal  and  Behar, 
with  a  claim  on  Orissa  whenever  they  could  procure  it  from 


1  The  yearly  allowances  of  the  Nawab  Nazim  were  fixed  in  the  first  instance 
by  Lord  Olive  at  fifty -three  lakhs  of  rupees,  or  more  than  half  a  million  sterling. 
The  first  puppet  Nawab  died  within  a  year  of  his  accession  from  sheer  self- 
indulgence;  his  successors  were  equally  useless  and  equally  worthless,  and, 
within  seven  years,  the  yearly  allowance  was  reduced  to  1 60,  OOOZ.  Strange 
to  say,  this  latter  rate  has  been  maintained  down  to  our  own  time ;  and  thus, 
for  more  than  a  century,  a  yearly  expenditure,  which  would  have  supported  a 
university,  has  been  wasted  on  a  useless  pageant  without  duties  and  without 
claims. 


864  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

the  Mahrattas.  Shuja-ud-daula  was  converted  into  a  friendly 
ally ;  and  it  was  hoped  that  he  would  succeed  in  guarding 
the  English  frontier  at  the  Carumnassa  river  from  Mah- 
rattas and  Afghans. 

The  financial  results  were  still  more  satisfactory.  The 
yearly  revenue  of  Bengal  and  Behar  was  roughly  estimated 
at  three  or  four  millions  sterling,  but  hopes  were  expressed 
that  it  might  reach  five  millions.  Out  of  this  gross  sum  the 
English  were  to  pay  half  a  million  to  the  Nawab,  and  a 
quarter  of  a  million  to  Shah  Alam ;  and  were  then  at  liberty 
to  appropriate  the  remainder. 

The  political  system  of  Lord  Olive  must  have  appeared 
on  paper  to  be  the  perfection  of  wisdom.  So  far  as  the 
Company  believed  in  his  golden  dreams  of  the  future,  it  held 
out  most  brilliant  prospects.  The  civil  administration  in  all 
matters  of  law,  justice,  and  police  was  left  in  the  hands  of 
the  natives,  so  that  there  were  no  responsibilities  on  that 
score.  At  the  same  time  it  was  fondly  expected  that  the 
surplus  revenues  of  Bengal  would  meet  all  charges  against 
the  Company  in  India;  including  all  the  expenses  of  the 
Company's  settlements,  all  the  civil  and  military  salaries, 
and  even  all  investments  in  India  and  China  goods.  Could 
these  visions  have  been  realized,  the  East  India  Company 
would  have  enjoyed  the  grandest  monopoly  the  world  ever 
saw.  The  Company  already  carried  on  a  trade  with  India 
and  China,  from  which  all  other  Englishmen  were  excluded ; 
and  the  further  convenience  of  making  the  people  of  Bengal 
and  Behar  pay  for  all  they  bought  in  the  east  would  have 
enabled  them  to  pocket  the  gross  receipts  of  all  they  sold  in 
England.  Meanwhile,  and  for  many  years,  so  much  secrecy 
was  observed,  and  so  much  confusion  was  created  by  the  use 
of  Oriental  terms,  that  few  outside  the  Company's  service 
could  possibly  understand  or  realize  the  actual  state  of 
affairs. 

The  external  policy  of  Lord  Clive  was  more  clear  and 
intelligible  to  men  of  business.  In  theory  it  was  a  strict 
adherence  to  the  principles  of  non-intervention,  amounting 


BRITISH    INDIA  365 

to  political  isolation.  The  English  in  Bengal  were  to  leave 
all  the  native  states  outside  the  frontier  to  their  own  devices. 
They  had  formed  an  alliance  with  Shah  Alam  and  his  Nawab 
Vizier,  but  they  were  to  abstain  from  making  any  other 
alliances  whatever.  Afghans  and  Mahrattas  might  fight 
each  other,  and  kill  each  other  like  Kilkenny  cats;  the  En- 
glish were  not  to  interfere,  especially  as  the  territories  of 
the  Nawab  Vizier  were  supposed  to  form  a  political  barrier 
against  both  the  antagonistic  races. 

Lord  Olive  had  some  misgivings  about  the  Mahrattas  of 
JBerar.  The  Bhonsla  Raja  of  Berar,  or  Nagpore,  was  press- 
ing for  the  payment  of  chout  for  Bengal  and  Behar  with 
arrears;  and  Olive  was  inclined  to  keep  him  quiet  by  paying 
the  chout,  on  the  condition  that  the  Raja  ceded  the  province 
of  Orissa,  which  he  had  held  ever  since  the  agreement  with 
Alivardi  Khan  in  1750.  Again  the  Mahrattas  were  recover- 
ing from  their  defeat  at  Paniput,  and  beginning  to  reassert 
their  ascendency  in  the  Dekhan  and  Hindustan.  Accord- 
ingly, Lord  Olive  threw  out  some  hints  of  an  alliance  with 
the  Nizam  of  the  Dekhan  which  should  maintain  the  balance 
of  power  against  the  Mahrattas. 

The  Directors  in  London  took  the  alarm.  They  saw  no 
necessity  for  paying  chout;  they  did  not  want  Orissa;  and 
they  protested  vigorously  against  any  alliance  with  the 
Nizam,  or  any  other  native  power.  "The  Carumnassa," 
they  repeated,  "is  your  boundary;  go  not  beyond  the  Car- 
umuassa!  Leave  the  Mahrattas  to  fight  the  Afghans,  and 
the  Nizam  to  fight  the  Mahrattas,  and  devote  all  your  atten- 
tion to  revenue  and  trade!" 

But  Lord  Olive  had  already  dealt  with  Nizam  All  accord- 
ing to  his  peculiar  scheme  of  imperial  policy.  On  arriving 
in  India  in  1765  he  had  been  told  that  Nizam  Ali  had  been 
ravaging  the  Carnatic;  and  he  saw  that  strong  measures 
must  be  taken  to  repress  such  a  troublesome  and  refractory 
neighbor.  The  quarrel  was  about  the  Northern  Circars; 
namely,  the  five  maritime  districts  on  the  coast  of  Coro- 
mandel,  extending  northward  from  the  frontier  of  the  Car- 


366  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

natic  to  the  pagoda  of  Jagganath.1  Salabut  Jung  had  ceded 
this  territory  to  Bussy  and  the  French,  and  afterward  to 
Colonel  Forde  and  the  English;  but  his  younger  brother, 
Nizam  Ali,  who  usurped  the  throne  at  Hyderabad  hi  1761, 
and  murdered  Salabut  Jung  in  1763,  refused  to  submit  to 
the  loss  of  territory. 

Lord  Clive  tried  to  settle  the  question  by  putting  forward 
Shah  Alam  as  the  rightful  sovereign  of  India.  Shah  Alam, 
as  the  Great  Moghul,  was  encouraged  to  maintain  a  little 
court  at  Allahabad ;  but  he  was  otherwise  treated  as  the  tool 
and  creature  of  the  English ;  and  a  story  is  told  that  the 
English  officer  in  command  at  Allahabad  refused  to  allow 
the  pageant  prince  to  sound  the  imperial  kettle-drums,  be- 
cause they  made  too  much  noise.  However,  Lord  Clive 
obtained  a  firman  from  Shah  Alam,  granting  the  Northern 
Circars  to  the  English  in  full  sovereignty,  in  defiance  of  the 
hereditary  claims  of  Nizam  Ah". 

The  assumption  was  enormous.  It  amounted  to  an  asser- 
tion, on  the  part  of  Shah  Alam,  of  a  sovereign  right  to  dis- 
pose at  will  of  all  the  territories  of  the  old  Moghul  empire, 
although  the  provinces  had  been  practically  converted  into 
hereditary  kingdoms  ever  since  the  invasion  of  Nadir  Shah. 
If  Shah  Alam  possessed  the  right  to  cede  a  portion  of  a 
province,  like  the  Northern  Circars,  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  deny  his  right  to  cede  whole  provinces  like 
Oude,  Hyderabad,  or  the  Carnatic. 

Had  Lord  Clive  been  an  Asiatic  conqueror,  remaining 
for  the  rest  of  his  life  in  India,  he  might  possibly  have  ruled 
over  the  whole  empire  of  Aurangzeb  in  the  name  of  the 
Great  Moghul.  Shah  Alam  would  have  been  the  half-deified 
symbol  of  sovereignty.  Lord  Clive  would  have  been  prune 
minister  or  Peishwa;  and  as  such  might  have  compelled  all 
rebellious  Viceroys  and  refractory  Rajas  to  do  his  bidding. 
He  was  already  the  virtual  sovereign  of  Behar  and  Bengal. 
He  had  disposed  of  Oude  at  will ;  and  had  he  remained  in 

1  See  ante,  pp.  301,  333,  and  334. 


BRITISH   INDIA  367 

India  he  would  have  held  the  Northern  Circars  under  the 
authority  of  the  firman.  His  genius  was  cast  in  the  iron 
mold  of  military  despotism;  and  the  prestige  of  his  name 
was  sufficient  to  render  the  decrees  of  Shah  Alam  as  irresist- 
ible as  those'  of  Aurangzeb. 

But  Lord  Olive  was  thwarted  by  the  Madras  authorities. 
In  1766  he  sent  an  expedition  under  General  Calliaud  to  take 
possession  of  the  Northern  Circars.  But  the  English  at 
Madras  were  alarmed  at  reports  that  Nizam  AH  was  making 
prodigious  preparations  for  the  invasion  of  the  Carnatic ;  and 
they  ordered  General  Calliaud  to  proceed  to  Hyderabad, 
and  conclude  a  peace  on  almost  any  terms  with  Nizam  AH. 

At  the  end  of  1766  General  Calliaud  negotiated  a  treaty 
with  Nizam  AH.  The  firman  of  Shah  Alam  was  ignored. 
The  EngHsh  agreed  to  pay  Nizam  AH  a  yearly  tribute  of 
seventy  thousand  pounds  for  the  Northern  Circars.1  At  the 
same  time  the  EngHsh  and  Nizam  AH  agreed  to  assist  each 
other  against  any  enemy;  and  in  the  first  instance  resolved 
on  a  joint  expedition  against  Hyder  AH  of  Mysore,  who  had 
already  threatened  the  dominions  of  Nizam  AH,  and  aroused 
the  jealousy  of  the  English  by  his  leanings  toward  the  French. 

In  January,  1767,  Lord  dive  left  India  never  to  return.* 
He  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Verelst  as  Governor  of  Bengal. 
Meanwhile  the  joint  expedition  of  Nizam  AH  and  the  EngHsh 
against  Hyder  AH  of  Mysore  was  opening  out  a  new  phase 
in  Indian  history. 

The  rise  of  Hyder  AH  is  a  sign  of  the  times.  This  ad- 
venturer was  a  Muhammadan  of  obscure  origin.  He  is  said 
to  have  served  as  a  soldier  in  the  French  army.3  Subse- 

1  There  was  some  special  arrangement  as  regards  the  Guntoor  Circar,  between 
the  Gundlacama  and  Kistna  rivers,  which  had  been  assigned  as  a  jaghir  to  Basalut 
Jung,  the  eldest  brother  of  Nizam  Ali.     The  Circar  of  Guntoor  was  not  to  be 
made  over  to  the  East  India  Company  until  after  the  death  of  Basalut  Jung. 

2  Lord  Clive  was  only  forty -two  when  his  career  in  India  was  brought  to  a 
close.     He  died  in  England  in  1774,  at  the  age  of  forty -nine. 

3  The  author  of  the  Siyar-ul-Mutaqherin  states  that  Hyder  Ali  was  originally 
a  French  sepoy.     The  story  is  extremely  probable,  although  it  would  be  sup- 
pressed or  denied  by  the  court  annalists  at  Mysore  or  Seringapatam.     It  would 
explain  Hyder  Ali's  subsequent  leanings  toward  the  French,  which  are  otherwise 
inexplicable. 


SS8  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

quently  he  left  the  French  army  and  raised  a  body  of  troops 
on  the. basis  of  plunder,  giving  his  men  the  half  of  all  they 
stole,  and  taking  care  that  nothing  was  stolen  without  his 
knowledge.  Hyder's  men  seized  every  description  of  prop- 
erty, great  and  small ;  they  would  carry  off  sheep,  cattle,  or 
grain,  or  they  would  strip  the  villagers  of  their  clothes  and 
earrings. 

Hyder  Ali  next  appeared  as  a  commander  in  the  service 
of  the  Hindu  Raja  of  Mysore  during  the  operations  against 
Trichinopoly.  He  received  a  money  allowance  for  every 
man  under  his  command,  and  a  donation  for  every  one  who 
was  wounded;  and  he  naturally  cheated  the  Hindu  govern- 
ment by  false  musters,  and  by  bandaging  men  without  a 
scratch,  in  order  to  pass  them  off  as  wounded.  Meanwhile 
the  Mysore  government  was  distracted  by  a  rivalry  between 
a  young  Raja,  who  was  a  minor,  and  an  uncle,  named  Nun- 
jeraj,  who  acted  as  regent,  and  Hyder  AH  did  not  fail  to 
take  advantage  of  the  occasion.  Gradually,  by  tricks  and 
treacheries  as  bewildering  as  the  feats  of  a  conjurer,  Hyder 
Ali  destroyed  the  influence  of  the  regent  and  used  the  Raja 
as  a  pageant,  until  at  last  he  assumed  the  sovereign  power 
in  his  own  name. 

Hyder  Ali  was  not  a  mere  freebooter.  He  subjugated 
several  small  states  to  the  north  and  west  of  Mysore,  includ- 
ing Kanara  and  Malabar.  In  this  fashion  he  converted  the 
Hindu  Raj  of  Mysore  into  the  seat  of  a  new  Muhammadan 
empire.  He  formed  no  political  alliances.  He  committed 
raids  on  the  territories  of  all  his  neighbors ;  on  the  Mahrattas 
of  Poona,  the  Nizam  of  Hyderabad,  and  the  Nawab  of  the 
Carnatic.  At  the  same  time  he  excited  the  jealous  alarm 
of  the  English  by  secret  dealings  with  the  French  of  Pondi- 
cherry. 

The  English  were  soon  disgusted  with  their  alliance  with 
Nizam  Ali.  The  united  armies  invaded  Mysore  and  cap- 
tured Bangalore.  Meantime  Nizam  Ali  was  secretly  in- 
triguing with  the  Mysore  court.  He  tried  to  win  over  the 
regent  Nunjeraj;  but  Hyder  Ali  discovered  the  plot,  and 


BRITISH   INDIA  369 

nothing  more  was  heard  of  Nunjeraj.  Nizam  Ali  next  tried 
to  win  over  Hyder  Ali.  This  plot  succeeded.  Nizam  Ali 
deserted  the  English,  and  joined  his  forces  with  those  of 
Hyder  Ali ;  and  the  new  confederates  began  to  attack  the 
English  and  invade  the  Carnatic. 

The  English  army  was  taken  aback  at  this  sudden  treach- 
ery, and  retired  toward  Madras;  but  reinforcements  came 
up,  and  they  succeeded  in  inflicting  two  decisive  defeats  on 
the  Muhammadan  confederates.  Nizam  Ali  was  much 
alarmed  at  these  disasters.  He  had  expected  to  crush  the 
English  and  recover  the  Carnatic  from  Muhammad  Ali ;  but 
he  began  to  fear  that  his  own  dominions  were  in  danger. 
Accordingly  he  repented  of  his  treachery,  deserted  Hyder 
Ali,  fled  toward  Hyderabad,  and  sued  the  English  for 
peace.  In  1768  another  treaty  was  concluded  between  the 
English  and  Nizam  Ali,  and  relations  were  restored  to  their 
former  footing. 

Nizam  Ali  had  grounds  for  his  alarm.  While  he  was 
uniting  his  forces  with  Hyder  Ali  against  the  English,  the 
puppet  Padishah  at  Allahabad  was  once  more  brought  into 
play.  Mr.  Verelst,  the  successor  of  Lord  Clive,  thought  to 
checkmate  Nizam  Ali,  and  put  an  effectual  stop  to  his  in- 
trigues with  Hyder  Ali,  by  procuring  a  blank  firman,  with 
the  seals  of  the  Great  Moghul,  granting  the  whole  of  the 
Nizam's  dominions  to  any  one  whom  the  English  might 
choose.  The  firman  was  actually  sent  to  Madras,  leaving 
the  English  there  to  fill  in  the  name  of  any  candidate  that 
pleased  them.  The  Directors  loudly  condemned  this  trans- 
action and  ordered  it  to  be  cancelled.1 

Strange  to  say,  Hyder  Ali  was  relieved  by  the  defection 


1  The  cool  attempt  of  Mr.  Verelst  to  deprive  Nizam  Ali  of  his  dominions  by 
a  simple  firman  from  Shah  Alam  excited  great  wrath  and  astonishment  at  the 
time.  Nevertheless  Verelst  continued  to  regret  that  the  design  was  not  carried 
out.  At  a  subsequent  period,  when  Shah  Alam  had  fled  from  Allahabad  to 
Delhi,  it  was  discovered  that  Hyder  Ali  of  Mysore  had  been  equally  clever. 
Hyder  Ali  had  actually  purchased  letters  of  investiture  from  the  pageant  Padi- 
shah at  Delhi,  under  which  he  himself  was  appointed  to  the  government  of  all 
the  dominions  of  the  Nizam. 


870  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

of  Nizam  All.  He  retired  to  Mysore;  but  after  collecting 
his  resources,  he  fought  the  English  with  varying  success, 
and  then  engaged  in  a  series  of  rapid  marches,  which  resem- 
bled the  movements  and  surprises  of  Sivaji.  He  exacted  a 
contribution  from  the  Raja  of  Tanjore ;  reopened  communi- 
cations with  the  reviving  French  settlement  at  Pondicherry; 
and  threatened  to  join  the  Mahrattas  of  Poona  against  the 
English,  unless  the  English  joined  him  against  the  Mahrat- 
tas. Finally  he  appeared  at  St.  Thome,  near  Madras,  with 
an  army  of  six  thousand  chosen  horsemen. 

The  English  at  Madras  were  filled  with  consternation. 
Their  resources  were  exhausted ;  they  were  alarmed  for  the 
safety  of  their  garden  houses  in  the  suburbs  of  Madras ;  and 
they  hastened  to  make  peace,  because,  as  they  said,  they 
had  no  money  to  carry  on  the  war.  In  April,  1769,  they 
concluded  an  offensive  and  defensive  treaty  with  Hyder  Ali. 
Each  party  agreed  to  restore  all  conquests,  and  to  help  the 
other  in  the  event  of  an  invasion  from  the  Mahrattas  or  any 
other  power. 

All  this  while  the  affairs  of  the  Company  in  Bengal  were 
drifting  into  financial  anarchy.  There  was  no  war,  nor  ru- 
mors of  war,  beyond  an  occasional  demand  from  the  Bhonsla 
Raja  of  Berar  for  the  payment  of  chout;  but  there  was  an 
alarming  decline  in  the  public  revenue;  money  was  disap- 
pearing from  Bengal,  and  many  of  the  native  population 
were  sinking  into  helpless  penury.  In  1770  Mr.  Verelst 
returned  to  England,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Cartier  as 
Governor  of  Bengal.  But  there  was  no  prospect  of  improve- 
ment. In  1770-71  a  terrible  famine  in  Bengal  added  to  the 
general  desolation.  At  last  in  1771  Lord  Olive's  political 
sham  of  a  Moghul  empire  suddenly  collapsed.  Shah  Alam 
threw  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  Mahrattas,  and  went  off 
to  Delhi ;  and  the  destinies  of  the  native  powers  of  India  en- 
tered upon  a  new  phase,  which  is  closely  associated  with  the 
Mahratta  empire,  and  will  demand  separate  consideration  in 
the  following  chapter. 

The  system  of  government  introduced  by  Lord  Clive  had 


BRITISH   INDIA  371 

turned  out  a  total  failure.  This  was  obvious  before  Lord 
Clive  left  Calcutta;  but  for  three  or  four  years  the  system 
was  lauded  to  the  skies  as  the  grand  discovery  of  the  age. 
At  last  the  rapid  diminution  of  the  revenues  of  Bengal  and 
Behar  opened  the  eyes  of  the  Directors,  and  induced  them  to 
break  up  the  political  sham,  and  to  intrust  the  collection  of 
the  land  rents  and  the  administration  of  justice  to  their  Eu- 
ropean servants. 

The  system  introduced  by  Lord  Clive  was  a  double  gov- 
ernment, under  which  the  English  took  over  the  revenue 
and  garrisoned  the  country,  and  left  the  administration  in 
the  hands  of  native  officials  without  prestige  or  authority. 
This  double  government  must  not  be  confounded  with  party 
government.  There  never  has  been  a  party  government  in 
India  with  the  natives  on  one  side  and  the  English  on  the 
other.  In  the  double  government  of  Lord  Clive  the  English 
cared  for  nothing  but  the  money,  and  left  the  native  officials 
to  prey  upon  the  people  and  ruin  the  country  without  check 
or  hindrance,  so  long  as  they  collected  the  land  rents  and 
paid  over  a  satisfactory  block  sum  into  the  English  treasury. 

This  anomaly  was  not  the  fault  of  Lord  Clive.  It  was 
forced  upon  him,  partly,  as  already  seen,  from  motives  of 
policy  as  regards  the  French  and  Dutch,  and  partly  also  by 
the  force  of  public  opinion  in  England.  Strong  indignation 
had  been  felt  in  England  at  the  interference  of  the  servants 
of  the  Company  in  the  administration  of  Mir  Kasim;  and 
strong  opinions  had  been  expressed  that  native  officials  should 
be  left  alone.  Accordingly  Lord  Clive  had  been  induced  to 
recognize  Muhammad  Reza  Khan  as  deputy  Nawab  at  Mur- 
shedabad,  and  to  appoint  Raja  Shitab  Rai  as  deputy  Nawab 
at  Patna,  in  order  that  these  two  officials  might  conduct  the 
native  administration.  He  also  appointed  a  British  Resident 
at  both  places  for  the  twofold  purpose  of  taking  over  the  rev- 
enue from  the  deputy  Nawabs,  and  of  protecting  the  native 
administration  from  any  encroachments  of  the  English.  He 
overlooked  the  fact  that  the  power  which  .takes  over  the 
revenue  is  responsible  for  the  well-being  of  the  people.  The 


872  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

result  was  that  all  the  vices  of  Oriental  rule  were  left  to 
fester  in  the  native  administration;  while  the  restrictions 
imposed  upon  the  British  Residents  prevented  the  possibility 
of  any  reform. 

In  Bengal  and  Behar  the  bulk  of  the  revenue  was  derived 
from  the  land,  which  was  assumed  to  be  the  property  of  the 
state.  The  Ryots  cultivated  the  land,  paying  rent  to  the 
Zemindar  of  the  district.  The  Zemindar  collected  the  rents 
of  his  district  in  the  mixed  character  of  landholder  and  rev- 
enue-collector, and  made  monthly  payments  into  the  treas- 
ury at  Murshedabad  or  Patna.  The  income  of  the  Zemindar 
was  thus  derived,  not  from  his  rental,  but  from  profit.  It 
comprised  the  difference  between  the  gross  rents  he  received 
from  the  Ryots  and  the  net  proceeds  which  he  paid  into  the 
treasury  at  headquarters. 

The  Ryots  were  mostly  Hindus — servile,  timid,  and  help- 
less. The  Zemindars  were  mostly  Muhammadans  from  Per- 
sia, bred  amid  the  tyranny  and  corruption  which  prevailed 
in  Persia,  and  devoid  of  all  sympathy  for  the  Hindu  popula- 
tion.1 They  collected  not  only  rents  but  irregular  cesses; 
and  whenever  there  was  a  marriage  in  the  house  of  a  Zemin- 
dar, or  a  son  was  born,  or  a  fine  was  levied  on  the  Zemindar 
on  account  of  some  delay  or  defalcation,  the  Ryots  were 
compelled  to  contribute  according  to  then*  means.  There 
was  no  way  of  escape,  except  by  bribing  the  servants  of  the 
Zemindar,  reaping  the  crops  at  night  and  hiding  the  grain, 
or  throwing  up  the  holding  and  flying  the  country. 

All  this  while  the  Zemindar  was  magistrate  of  the  dis- 
trict. He  could  fine,  imprison,  torture,  and  even  execute 
heinous  offenders,  and  there  was  no  one  to  control  him. 
There  were  Muhammadan  Kazis  and  Brahman  Pundits  to 
decide  civil  cases,  and  there  were  higher  courts  of  appeal ; 
but  no  one  could  obtain  redress  without  a  large  expenditure 
in  presents  or  bribes,  or  the  interference  of  some  powerful 
grandee. 

1  See  Verelst'a  Beugal.     Also  Early  Records  of  British  India. 


BRITISH   INDIA  373 

In  addition  to  the  Zemindars,  there  always  had  been  gov- 
ernors or  deputy  Nawabs  of  the  same  type  as  Muhammad 
Keza  Khan  and  Raja  Shitab  Rai.  They  governed  large 
towns  or  circles;  received  the  collections  from  the  Zemin- 
dars; and  kept  the  peace  throughout  their  respective  juris- 
dictions. Originally  their  posts  had  been  filled  by  Muham- 
madan  officers;  but  later  Nawabs  preferred  promoting  Hindu 
officials,  and  giving  them  the  honorary  title  of  "Raja."  ' 

The  only  check  on  Zemindars  and  deputy  Nawabs  was 
the  right  of  petition  to  the  Nawab ;  and  this  check  in  olden 
time  had  exercised  a  restraining  influence  on  oppression. 
Former  Nawabs  would  often  sit  in  state,  and  spend  a  great 
part  of  their  days  in  hearing  petitions  and  passing  judgments 
with  the  assistance  of  law  officers.  Sometimes  the  iniquitous 
oppressions  and  exactions  of  a  Zemindar  were  forced  on  the 
attention  of  a  Nawab,  and  were  punished  by  the  confiscation 
of  his  goods  and  removal  from  his  Zemindary.  Sometimes, 
justly  or  unjustly,  a  Hindu  Raja  was  recalled  from  his  post, 
deprived  of  all  his  goods  and  chattels,  and  put  to  an  igno- 
minious death  as  a  punishment  for  his  misdeeds,  or  in  order 
to  replenish  the  coffers  of  a  grasping  Nawab. 

But  under  the  double  government  created  by  Lord  Clive, 
embezzlement,  corruption,  and  oppression  flourished  as  in  a 
hotbed.  Not  only  was  there  no  check,  but  there  was  every 
temptation  to  guilty  collusion.  No  Zemindars  could  have 
been  anxious  to  swell  the  collections  of  revenue  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  East  India  Company ;  nor  were  the  deputy  Nawabs 
eager  to  detect  defalcations  and  abuses,  when  they  might  be 
bribed  to  silence  by  a  share  in  the  spoil.  The  new  puppet 
Nawab  Nazim  had  no  inducement  to  hear  petitions,  and  no 


1  Muhammadan  governors  were  often  turbulent  and  refractory ;  and  they 
squandered  all  their  ill-gotten  gains  on  pomp  and  pleasure.  Hindus  were  more 
amenable  to  authoritj^,  and  delighted  in  hoarding  up  gold  and  jewels ;  so  that 
as  occasion  served  they  could  be  squeezed  of  all  the  riches  they  had  absorbed. 
Mir  Jafir  removed  some  of  the  Hindu  Rajas,  and  appointed  Muhammadan  kins- 
men of  his  own  to  the  vacant  posts.  Muhammad  Reza  Khan  was  a  fair  sample 
of  a  Muhammadan  grandee ;  while  Shitab  Rai  was  a  favorable  specimen  of  a 
Hindu  Raja. 


374  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

power  to  enforce  judgment.  The  deputy  Nawabs,  Muham- 
mad Reza  Khan  at  Murshedabad  and  Raja  Shitab  Rai  at 
Patna,  were  supposed  to  hear  petitions;  but  they  had  a 
thousand  interests  to  consult,  of  Englishmen  as  well  as 
Zemindars,  and  it  is  impossible  to  know  whether  they  per- 
formed their  duties  well  or  ill.  Meanwhile  the  English  ser- 
vants of  the  East  India  Company  were  merchants,  educated 
for  the  counting-house,  skilled  in  bargaining  and  commerce, 
and  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  the  one  aim  and  ob- 
ject of  life  in  India  was  to  make  a  fortune  and  return  to 
England  at  the  earliest  possible  opportunity. 

The  outward  working  of  the  Nizamut  may  be  gathered 
from  a  solemn  farce  which  was  played  every  year  at  Mur- 
shedabad. The  annual  revenue  settlements  were  arranged 
at  a  yearly  festival  known  as  the  Poona.  The  Zemindars 
assembled  at  the  capital  to  make  their  agreements  as  regards 
the  monthly  payments  of  revenue  for  the  ensuing  year.  The 
Nawab  Nazim  took  his  seat  on  the  throne  in  empty  dignity ; 
while  the  English  Governor  of  Bengal  and  Behar  stood  on 
his  right  hand  as  representing  the  Honorable  Company  in 
the  quality  of  Dewan. 

One  result  of  the  new  system  of  government  was  the 
rapid  disappearance  of  rupees.  Silver  was  no  longer  im- 
ported from  Europe  for  the  purchase  of  commodities  or  pay- 
ment of  salaries;  while  large  quantities  were  exported  to 
Madras  and  China,  or  carried  to  Europe  by  the  Company's 
servants,  who  retired  with  large  fortunes.  The  old  Nawabs 
of  Murshedabad  had  squandered  enormous  sums  on  pomps 
and  pleasures,  which,  however  useless  in  themselves,  had  kept 
the  money  in  the  country.  Under  the  English  regime  these 
expenses  had  been  largely  curtailed ;  the  army  was  disbanded, 
the  vast  menageries  of  animals  and  birds  were  broken  up, 
and  there  were  large  reductions  in  the  household  and  zenana. 
But  the  money  thus  saved  was  sent  out  of  Bengal ;  and  a 
host  of  native  soldiery  and  parasites  were  reduced  to  beg- 
gary. A  native  contemporary  remarked,  in  the  language  of 
Oriental  hyperbole,  that  grain  had  become  exceedingly  cheap 


BRITISH   INDIA  375 

because  there  was  no  money  to  buy  it ;  that  a  native  horse- 
man was  becoming  as  rare  as  a  phoenix;  and  that  but  for 
the  money  spent  by  the  English  in  the  purchase  of  raw  silk, 
opium,  and  white  piece  goods,  a  silver  rupee,  or  a  gold 
mohur,  would  have  been  as  rare  as  a  philosopher's  stone.1 

The  stoppage  of  the  exports  of  silver  from  Bengal  to 
China,  and  increased  public  expenditure  in  Bengal,  lessened 
the  evils  arising  from  the  outflow  of  silver;  but  nothing 
would  check  the  rapid  decline  of  the  revenue.  Mr.  Verelst, 
who  succeeded  Lord  Olive  as  Governor  of  Bengal,  Laems  to 
have  understood  the  causes  of  the  decrease.  For  years  he 
had  overlooked  the  revenue  administration  in  Burdwan, 
Midnapore  and  Chittagong,  and  had  seen  the  roguery  which 
pervaded  all  classes  of  native  officials,  and  the  unblushing 
rascality  of  their  servants  and  dependents.  But  Verelst  was 
hampered  by  Olive's  political  system  of  non-interference, 
and  was  compelled  to  use  the  utmost  caution  in  introduc- 
ing European  supervision. 

In  the  first  instance  Verelst  appointed  English  super- 
visors into  the  different  districts,  with  instructions  to  report 
all  that  was  going  on,  but  not  to  interfere  in  the  native  ad- 
ministration. Subsequently  the  English  Residents  at  Mur- 
shedabad  and  Patna  were  encouraged  to  inquire  into  the 
donduct  of  affairs;  and  ultimately  committees  of  English- 
men were  appointed  in  association  with  Muhammad  Reza 
Khan  and  Shitab  Rai. 

At  this  crisis  the  natives  were  taken  aback  by  a  social 
revolution.  Hitherto  the  English  had  kept  aloof  from  na- 
tive gentlemen,  and  taken  no  pleasure  in  their  society ;  but 
now  they  began  to  form  intimacies  with  Muhammadan  and 
Hindu  grandees,  and  to  converse  with  them  on  political 
affairs.  It  was  remarked  by  the  native  writer  already 
quoted,  that  the  English  eagerly  inquired  into  the  laws, 
usages,  and  modes  of  transacting  public  business,  and  wrote 
down  all  they  heard  in  books  for  the  information  of  other 

1  Siyar-ul-Mutaqherin,  by  Gholam  Husain  All. 


376  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

Englishmen.  Meanwhile  the  native  grandees  were  envious 
and  jealous  of  each  other;  and  every  one  was  ready  to  re- 
port the  misdoings  of  the  others,  in  order  to  win  the  favor 
of  the  English  gentlemen,  or  to  conceal  his  own  backslid- 
ings  and  shortcomings. 

The  English  gentlemen,  it  was  said,  also  attended  courts 
of  justice,  and  sometimes  expressed  surprise  at  what  they 
saw  or  heard.  When  an  offender  was  convicted  and  fined, 
his  accuser  also  was  required  to  pay  a  fine  by  way  of  thanks- 
giving. The  English  could  not  understand  this,  and  asked 
why  a  man  should  be  fined  who  had  committed  no  offence? 
They  were  told  it  was  the  custom  of  the  country.  Again, 
when  a  Zemindar  or  Kazi  tried  a  civil  case,  he  took  a  fourth 
part  of  the  amount  in  dispute  as  his  fee.  This  again  the 
English  could  not  understand,  as  they  had  no  such  custom 
in  their  country. 

Under  such  circumstances  the  native  grandees  would 
be  most  polite  and  obliging,  while  an  Englishman  would  be 
sometimes  gulled.  A  Mr.  George  Vansittart1  was  sent  to 
Patna,  where  Raja  Shitab  Rai  was  acting  as  deputy  Nawab; 
and  Gholam  Husain  Ali  describes  the  circumstances  of  their 
meeting,  and  the  ultimate  results,  with  much  apparent  truth- 
fulness and  simplicity: 

"When  it  was  known  that  Mr.  Vansittart  was  coming  to 
Patna,  all  the  enemies  of  Shitab  Rai  conceived  mighty  hopes 
from  the  change.  The  capacity  and  politeness  of  the  Raja 
were  such  that  few  could  have  found  fault  with  his  adminis- 
tration; but  many  were  envious  of  his  greatness,  and  pre- 
pared to  light  up  a  mighty  flame,  so  that  he  himself  was 
fearful  of  the  consequences.  The  hem  of  his  robe  was  pretty 
free  from  dirt,  and  the  blemishes  in  it  were  few  in  compari- 
son with  his  many  services ;  yet  he  was  so  alive  to  the  incon- 
veniences that  might  arise  from  the  difference  of  nation  and 
language,  and  his  ignorance  of  Mr.  Vansittart's  character 
and  genius,  that  he  was  very  doubtful  of  his  fate. 

1  This  was  a  brother  of  Governor  Vansittart,  who  perished  at  sea  during  a 
return  voyage  to  India. 


BRITISH    INDIA  377 

"When  Mr.  Vansittart  approached  Patna,  the  Raja  went 
out  to  meet  him,  took  him  on  his  elephant,  and  brought  him- 
into  the  city.  This  was  very  mortifying  to  the  enemies  of 
the  Raja,  who  were  hastening  to  wait  on  Mr.  Vansittart  in 
order  to  set  up  a  shop  of  chicanery  and  malice.  They  were 
all  struck  dumb  by  his  artful  behavior.  As  a  great  states- 
man and  accountant,  he  had  ready  every  kind  of  paper  that 
could  be  called  for.  He  was  firm  and  steady  in  his  behavior 
and  answers ;  never  boggled  or  prevaricated ;  never  hesitated 
to  furnish  any  information  that  was  required ;  and  answered 
with  so  much  propriety  as  to  leave  no  opening  for  an  impu- 
tation on  his  character.  Accordingly  Mr.  Vansittart  was  so 
convinced  of  his  fidelity,  wisdom,  and  knowledge,  that  he 
opened  the  gates  of  friendship  and  union.  Nor  was  the 
Raja  wanting  to  himself  in  such  an  overture.  By  respect- 
ful behavior,  and  a  number  of  curious  presents,  he  gained  so 
much  on  the  mind  of  Mr.  Vansittart,  that  the  latter  gentle- 
man was  thoroughly  satisfied. 

"Raja  Shitab  Rai  behaved  to  men  of  virtue  and  distinc- 
tion with  a  modesty  and  humility  that  disarmed  envy.  He 
was  quick  at  understanding  the  intent  of  every  man's  peti- 
tion. If  he  granted  a  request  it  was  with  the  utmost  con- 
descension; if  he  refused  a  petition  it  was  with  handsome 
excuses  and  in  condoling  language.  He  was  engaged  in 
business,  and  in  conferences  with  different  people,  from  day- 
break till  noon,  and  from  evening  till  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  He  never  seemed  fatigued  with  the  number  of 
applicants,  or  impatient  at  the  extravagance  of  their  de- 
mands; and  he  never  used  a  harsh  word,  or  the  language 
of  abuse  or  reprimand.  He  was  generous  and  hospitable, 
after  the  manner  of  a  middle  class  Moghul  Amir  of  Hindu- 
stan. "Whenever  a  person  of  distinction  came  to  Patna  the 
Raja  always  sent  him  a  number  of  trays  of  sweetmeats, 
delicacies,  and  dressed  victuals  according  to  his  rank  and 
station. 

"But  Rajah  Shitab  Rai  was  not  wholly  free  from  blame. 
He  was  too  fond  of  obliging  and  gratifying  his  friends  and 


878  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

acquaintances.  He  religiously  abstained  from  appropriating 
the  public  money,  but  his  salary  and  private  means  fell  very 
short  of  his  expenses,  and  he  was  obliged  moreover  to  be- 
stow sums  of  money  on  Europeans.  In  order,  therefore,  to 
adjust  his  means  to  his  expenses,  he  adopted  two  methods, 
which  were  both  iniquitous.  When  a  man  was  indebted  to 
the  public  treasury  it  was  customary  to  send  one  or  two  con- 
stables to  compel  payment,  and  to  charge  their  diet  money 
to  the  debtor.  But  Shitab  Rai  sent  dozens  of  constables, 
and  entered  but  a  very  small  part  of  the  diet  money  in  the 
book  of  receipts,  and  kept  the  remainder  to  expend  on  his 
liberalities.  Again,  Shitab  Rai  called  upon  all  jaghirdars 
and  other  landholders  to  produce  their  title-deeds  on  the 
pretence  that  some  English  gentlemen  wanted  to  examine 
them ;  and  he  refused  to  return  the  documents  until  the  in- 
cumbent had  contributed  a  sum  of  money  in  proportion  to 
his  means.  All  these  contributions  he  bestowed  on  English- 
men that  had  been  recommended  to  him ;  and  seemed  to  be 
wholly  occupied  in  keeping  the  gentlemen  of  that  nation  in 
good  humor. ' ' 

The  observations  and  admissions  of  Gholam  Husain  Ali 
sufficiently  reveal  the  early  results  of  the  collision  between 
the  European  and  Hindu  mind  during  the  rise  of  British 
power  in  Bengal.  Raja  Shitab  Rai  was  a  type  of  the  na- 
tive grandees  and  officials  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  a 
prototype  of  a  considerable  number  of  the  nineteenth.  By 
readiness  and  business  habits,  and  a  constant  study  of  the 
temper  of  his  employers,  he  had  gradually  risen  from  one 
post  to  another,  until  he  had  gained  the  favor  of  Lord  Olive, 
and  was  appointed  deputy  Nawab  at  Patna.  Of  course  the 
Raja  was  most  attentive  and  profoundly  respectful  to  the 
English  gentlemen;  for  it  was  currently  believed  by  every 
native  of  standing  and  experience  that  all  Englishmen,  espe- 
cially officials,  were  gratified  with  the  language  of  flattery 
and  adulation.  The  Raja  was  also  ever  ready  with  his  ex- 

1  Siyar-ul-Mutaqherin,  Calcutta  translation. 


BRITISH   INDIA  379 

planations,  having  probably  learned  them  by  heart  before 
Mr.  Vansittart's  arrival;  being  well  aware  that  nothing  ex- 
asperates an  Englishman  so  much  as  boggling  or  prevarica- 
tion, and  that  almost  any  lie  may  be  swallowed  so  long  as  it 
is  prompt  and  plausible.  Meanwhile,  the  number  and  value 
of  the  Raja's  presents  could  scarcely  fail  to  make  a  gratify- 
ing impression  on  Mr.  Vansittart,  and  have  thoroughly  sat- 
isfied that  gentleman  of  his  faithfulness  and  capacity.  The 
public  conduct  of  the  Raja  toward  petitioners  was  modelled 
after  that  of  the  most  polished  Oriental  statesmen,  as  being 
the  best  calculated  for  confirming  friends  and  disarming 
enemies.  Unfortunately  Shitab  Rai  found  that  he  must 
keep  on  good  terms  with  English  gentlemen  at  any  price; 
and  consequently  he  was  driven  to  commit  those  acts  of  em- 
bezzlement and  oppression  which  his  best  friends  must  have 
deplored,  and  for  which  the  Englishmen  of  those  days  were 
more  or  less  responsible. 

Meanwhile,  the  Directors  in  England  threw  all  the  blame 
of  the  declining  revenues  on  the  crafty  practices  of  the  native 
officials,  and  the  corrupt  collusion  between  their  own  English 
servants  and  the  deputy  Nawabs  at  Mushedabad  and  Patua 
— Muhammad  Reza  Khan  and  Raja  Shitab  Rai.  How  far 
they  were  justified  in  these  conclusions  may  be  gathered 
from  the  admissions  of  Gholam  Husain  Ali,  who  evidently 
entertained  a  high  opinion  of  Shitab  Rai.  Gholam  Husain 
Ali  was  infinitely  more  bitter  against  Muhammad  Reza 
Khan,  charging  him  with  pride  and  insolence,  corruption 
and  crime;  but  as  the  writer  was  notoriously  an  enemy  to 
Muhammad  Reza  Khan,  it  would  be  invidious  to  repeat 
the  accusations. 

The  Directors  in  England  were  exasperated  beyond  meas- 
ure by  their  losses  in  trade.  The  Indian  commodities  and 
manufactures  had  risen  in  price  and  deteriorated  hi  value, 
chiefly,  it  was  believed,  through  the  culpable  heedlessness, 
or  still  more  guilty  connivance,  of  their  servants  in  the  dif- 
ferent factories.  At  the  same  time,  the  public  expenditure 
in  Bengal  had  risen  to  such  a  pitch  that  the  Company  was 


380  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

brought  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  Yet  year  after  year  the  Com- 
pany's servants  returned  to  England  loaded  with  wealth, 
which  they  were  supposed  to  have  wrung  out  of  native 
princes,  or  acquired  by  oppressing  the  native  population. 

It  is  needless  to  dwell  on  obsolete  scandals.  No  doubt, 
presents  were  received  from  native  contractors,  and  "dus- 
toori,"  or  commission,  from  native  dealers  and  manufac- 
turers. No  one  was  better  acquainted  with  the  Company's 
trade  at  the  factories  up  country  than  "Warren  Hastings; 
and  he  bitterly  complained  that  the  Directors  were  rigid 
about  salaries,  while  they  were  indifferent  about  perqui- 
sites, though  the  former  were  but  pittances,  while  the  lat- 
ter amounted  to  lakhs.1  Corruption  was  equally  rampant 
at  Calcutta.  Contracts  were  given  to  Europeans  for  every 
kind  of  public  expenditure,  while  the  work  was  intrusted  to 
natives;  and  whoever  obtained  a  contract  seemed  to  make  a 
fortune.  The  Directors  saw  that  large  sums  were  entered 
in  the  public  accounts,  which  they  were  unable  to  audit,  and 
which  only  confirmed  their  worst  suspicions. 

All  this  while  the  people  of  the  country  were  bitterly  com- 
plaining of  being  abandoned  to  the  oppression  and  extortion 
of  native  officials.  The  author  of  the  Siyar-ul-Mutaqherin 
testifies  to  the  superiority  of  the  English,  but  denounces 
their  selfish  neglect  of  the  masses.  "When,"  he  says,  "the 
Shahzada  invaded  Behar,  the  people  prayed  that  he  might 
be  victorious  and  prosperous,  for  they  remembered  the  good 
government  and  favors  they  had  enjoyed  under  his  ances- 
tors. But  when  they  found  themselves  harassed  and  plun- 
dered by  his  disorderly  soldiery,  and  saw  that  the  English 
never  touched  a  blade  of  grass,  nor  injured  the  weakest  in- 
dividual, they  changed  their  minds;  and  when  the  Shahzada 
was  proclaimed  Padishah,  and  invaded  Behar  under  the 
name  of  Shah  Alam,  they  loaded  him  with  reproaches  and 
prayed  for  victory  and  prosperity  for  the  English  army. 
But  they  soon  ceased  to  pray  for  the  English;  for  the  new 

1  Gleig's  Memoirs  of  Warren  Hastings,  vol.  i.  chap.  viii. 


BRITISH    INDIA  381 

rulers  paid  no  attention  to  the  concerns  of  the  people  of  Hin- 
dustan, and  suffered  them  to  be  mercilessly  plundered,  op- 
pressed, and  tormented,  by  officers  of  their  own  appointing." 

In  1771  matters  were  brought  to  a  climax  by  a  horrible 
famine  in  Bengal.  It  is  needless  to  dwell  upon  the  details 
of  death  and  desolation.  Indian  famines  have  been  familiar- 
ized to  readers  of  the  present  generation,  but  were  intensified 
in  the  eighteenth  century  by  the  inadequacy  of  the  measures 
taken  to  meet  the  evil.  Many  English  gentlemen,  as  well 
as  Shitab  Rai,  and  perhaps  other  grandees,  labored  hard  to 
alleviate  the  general  suffering  by  feeding  thousands  at  their 
own  expense,  and  bringing  down  stores  of  grain  from  cheaper 
markets.  But  alarming  news  had  reached  England  that  cer- 
tain Englishmen  had  confederated  with  Muhammad  Reza 
Khan  to  profit  by  the  national  disaster  by  hoarding  up  large 
stocks  of  grain  and  selling  it  out  at  famine  prices. 

The  result  of  all  these  complicated  suspicions  and  charges 
was  that  the  Directors  determined  on  a  radical  reform ;  and 
to  intrust  this  important  work  to  Mr.  Warren  Hastings  by 
appointing  him  to  be  Governor  of  Bengal.  Hastings  was  a 
man  of  large  Indian  experience  and  clear-headed  capacity; 
and  up  to  this  period  was  regarded  as  a  man  of  probity. 
Accordingly  the  Directors  expected  Hastings  to  bring  back 
their  European  servants  to  a  sense  of  duty,  moderation,  and 
loyalty  to  the  Company ;  and  to  remodel  the  administration 
by  transferring  the  collection  of  the  revenue  from  natives  to 
Europeans. 

The  advent  of  Warren  Hastings  is  the  beginning  of  a 
new  era.  He  introduced  British  administration  into  Bengal 
and  Behar ;  and  he  was  drawn  by  the  Bombay  government 
into  hostilities  on  a  large  scale  against  the  Mahrattas.  Ac- 
cordingly, before  entering  on  the  history  of  his  government, 
it  will  be  as  well  to  review  the  progress  of  affairs  in  Bombay 
and  the  neighboring  empire  of  the  Mahrattas. 


382  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 


CHAPTER   V 
BOMBAY— MAHRATTA  EMPIRE 

A.D.  1748   TO  1772 

DURING  the  eighteenth  century  Madras,  Calcutta, 
and  Bombay  had  each  a  political  life  of  its  own. 
This  individuality  is  disappearing  in  an  age  of  rail- 
ways and  telegraphs;  but  it  has  left  lasting  marks  on  the 
traditions  of  the  past;  and  before  proceeding  further  with 
the  history,  it  may  be  as  well  to  sum  up  the  distinctive  char- 
acteristics in  the  annals  of  each  of  the  three  Presidencies. 

Madras  is  seated  in  an  open  roadstead  on  the  sandy  and 
surf -bound  coast  of  Coromandel.  On  the  sea  side  it  looks 
over  the  large  expanse  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal  toward  Burma, 
Siam,  Sumatra,  the  Eastern  Archipelago,  and  the  more  re- 
mote territories  of  China  and  Japan.  On  the  land  side  it 
was  associated  with  the  establishment  of  the  Nawabs  of  the 
Carnatic  and  Nizams  of  Hyderabad  as  independent  princes; 
with  old  wars  between  England  and  France ;  with  the  cap- 
ture of  Madras  by  Labourdonnais,  the  ambitious  dreams  of 
Dupleix,  the  siege  of  Trichinopoly  by  .Chunder  Sahib  and  the 
French,  the  defence  of  Arcot  by  Clive,  the  victory  of  Eyre 
Coote  at  Wandiwash,  and  the  temporary  destruction  of 
Pondicherry  in  1761;  and,  finally,  with  the  rise  of  Hyder 
Ali  in  the  western  tableland  of  Mysore. 

Calcutta  is  situated  a  hundred  miles  up  the  river  Hughli, 
amid  green  rice-fields  and  overgrown  jungles.  It  is  remote 
from  the  sea  and  busied  with  shipping  in  the  river.  Before 
the  age  of  railways  a  water  communication  united  Calcutta 
with  Patna  and  Benares,  and  opened  up  the  heart  of  Hin- 
dustan. The  English  settlement  was  associated  with  mem- 


BRITISH    INDIA  383 

ones  of  the  Black  Hole,  the  recovery  of  Calcutta  from  the 
Nawab,  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Chandernagore, 
the  triumph  at  Plassy,  the  setting  up  of  Nawabs  at  Murshed- 
abad,  the  acquisition  of  Bengal  and  Behar  in  1765,  the  sub- 
sequent introduction  of  British  administration  into  Bengal 
and  Behar  by  Warren  Hastings,  and  the  rise  of  a  British 
empire  which  was  to  overshadow  Hindustan  and  establish 
a  dominion  from  the  Brahmaputra  to  the  Indus. 

Bombay  is  a  small  island  on  the  Malabar  coast,  com- 
manding the  finest  harbor  on  the  eastern  seas,  and  looking 
over  the  Indian  Ocean  toward  Muscat  and  Madagascar,  the 
Persian  Gulf  and  the  Red  Sea.  It  was  the  dowry  of  Cath- 
erine, the  Portuguese  wife  of  Charles  the  Second.  On  the 
land  side  it  was  hemmed  round  with  Mahrattas,  who  exer- 
cised dominion,  or  collected  chout,  from  Bombay  to  Bengal, 
from  Guzerat  to  Orissa,  and  from  Malwa  to  Mysore. 

The  other  neighbors  of  the  English  settlement  at  Bombay 
were  maritime  powers.  On  the  north  and  south  were  the 
Abyssinians  of  Surat  and  Jinjeera,  whose  hereditary  chiefs, 
known  as  the  Seedees,  or  Sidis,1  were  the  nominal  lord  high 
admirals  of  the  Moghul;  the  protectors  of  Moghul  traders 
and  Mecca  pilgrims  against  the  pirates  of  Malabar.  Further 
to  the  south  were  the  Mahratta  pirates  of  Malabar ;  the  hered- 
itary Angrias  of  Gheria ;  the  representatives  of  the  Malabar 
corsairs,  who  had  been  the  terror  of  the  Indian  Ocean  since 
the  days  of  Pliny  and  the  Caesars. 

The  frontiers  of  the  great  Mahratta  empire  were  ever 
changing  like  those  of  the  Parthians.  In  fact,  the  Mah- 
rattas were  the  Parthians  of  India,  and  their  dominion 
extended  as  far  as  the  Mahratta  horsemen  could  harry 
and  destroy.  But  a  distinction  must  be  drawn  between 
Maharashtra  proper,  the  homes  of  the  Mahratta-speaking 
people,  and  the  outlying  military  dominion  of  Mahratta 
feudatories.  Maharashtra  proper  was  the  hereditary  king- 

1  The  term  Seedee,  when  assumed  by  the  Africans,  is  a  term  of  dignity  corre- 
sponding to  the  Arabic  term  Saiyid,  or  lord.  In  India,  however,  it  was  some- 
times used  as  a  term  of  reproach  rather  than  of  distinction. — Grant  Duff. 


384  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

dom  of  the  Maharajas  of  the  house  of  Sivaji.  The  military 
lieutenants  outside  the  Mahratta  pale  were  freebooting 
chiefs,  who  originally  held  commissions  from  the  reign- 
ing Maharaja,  but  who  gradually  grew  into  vassal  princes; 
while  the  outlying  territories  which  they  plundered  hard- 
ened into  semi-independent  provinces  of  a  loose  Mahratta 
empire. 

The  seats  of  the  home  government  of  the  Mahratta  coun- 
try are  indicated  by  three  important  fortresses,  running  from 
north  to  south,  and  known  as  Poona,  Satara,  and  Kolhapore. 
Poona  was  situated  about  seventy  miles  to  the  southeast  of 
Bombay;  it  was  originally  the  stronghold  of  Sivaji,  the 
founder  of  the  Mahratta  empire,  but  was  subsequently  sur- 
rendered to  the  generals  of  Aurangzeb.  Satara  was  the 
capital  of  Sahu,  the  grandson  of  Sivaji,  and  last  of  the 
Bhonsla  dynasty.  Kolhapore  was  the  capital  of  an  inde- 
pendent principality  founded  by  a  rival  branch  of  the  same 
Bhonsla  family.  * 

The  four  leading  Mahratta  feudatories  have  already  been 
mentioned:  namely,  the  Gaekwar  in  Guzerat;  Holkar  and 
Sindia  in  Malwa,  between  the  Nerbudda  and  the  Chambal 
rivers;  and  the  Raja  of  Berar  and  Nagpore  to  the  north  of 
the  Nizam  of  Hyderabad.11  The  three  former  were  of  low 
caste;  but  the  Berar  Raja  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Bhonslas, 
of  which  Sivaji  was  a  member.  The  Bhonsla  Raja  of  Berar 
was  also  the  most  powerful  of  the  four;  for  he  had  con- 
quered large  territories  from  the  Nizam  of  the  Dekhan, 
and  occupied  the  Orissa  country  to  the  south  of  Behar  and 
Bengal. 

The  early  history  of  the  Mahratta  feudatories  is  a  con- 
fused narrative  of  family  quarrels,  assassinations,  and  pred- 
atory exploits,  varied  by  frequent  disputes  with  the  Maha- 


1  The  Raj  of  Kolhapore  was  held  by  a  younger  brother  of  Sahu,  known  as 
Sambhaji  the  Second,  to  distinguish  him  from  his  father,  the  first  Sambhaji,  who 
was  executed  by  Aurangzeb.     See  ante,  p.  217.     Further  south,  near  Goa,  was 
the  Bhonsla  chief  of  Sawant  Waree,  but  he  has  played  little  or  no  part  in  history. 

2  See  ante,  pp.  258,  259. 


BRITISH   INDIA  385 

raja's  government  as  to  the  amount  of  revenue  or  chout  to 
be  paid  into  the  Maharaja's  treasury.  About  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  the  four  great  feudatories  were 
beginning  to  found  dynasties,  namely,  Damaji  Qaekwar, 
Mulhar  Rao  Holkar,  Ranuji  Sindia,  and  Rughuji  Bhonsla. 

Maharaja  Sahu,  grandson  of  Sivaji,  died  at  Satara  in 
1748.  For  some  years  before  his  death  he  had  been  nearly 
imbecile.  A  favorite  dog  had  saved  his  life  while  hunting 
a  tiger.  He  conferred  a  jaghir  on  the  dog,  and  provided 
it  with  a  palanquin  and  bearers.  He  dressed  the  dog  in 
brocade  and  jewels,  placed  his  own  turban  on  its  head,  and 
in  this  fashion  received  Mahratta  chiefs  in  full  durbar.  He 
was  conscious  of  his  dependence  on  his  Brahman  prime  min- 
ister, or  Peishwa,  and  boasted  that  he  had  conquered  India 
from  the  Muhammadans  and  given  it  to  the  Brahmans. 

Sahu  died  childless;  consequently  before  his  death  there 
had  been  plots  in  the  zenana  as  regards  the  succession.  An 
old  princess  of  the  family,  named  Tara  Bai,  produced  a  boy, 
named  Raja  Ram,  whom  she  declared  was  her  own  grand- 
son. Nothing  was  known  of  the  boy,  but  she  persuaded  the 
dying  Sahu  that  he  was  the  legitimate  descendant  of  Sivaji, 
and  consequently  the  rightful  heir  to  the  throne  at  Satara. 
Her  object  was  to  secure  the  throne  for  the  boy,  and  then 
to  rule  the  Mahratta  empire  as  regent  during  the  minority 
of  her  reputed  grandson.1 

Sukwar  Bai,  the  chief  wife  of  Sahu,  was  hotly  opposed 
to  the  scheme  of  Tara  Bai.  She  had  no  notion  of  seeing 
Tara  Bai  occupy  the  post  of  regent.  She  declared  that  Raja 
Ram  was  an  impostor.  She  intrigued  in  behalf  of  a  claim- 
ant of  the  house  of  Kolhapore,  who  was  also  a  descendant 
of  Sivaji.  She  secretly  won  over  several  partisans,  but 


1  Tara  Bai  was  a  widow  of  Raja  Ram,  the  youngest  son  of  Sivaji.  When 
Sambhaji  the  First,  the  elder  son  of  Sivaji,  was  executed  by  Aurangzeb  in  1689, 
Raja  Ram  succeeded  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Mahrattas.  Raja  Ram  died  in 
1700,  and  Tara  Bai  became  regent  during  the  minority  of  a  son  who  was  an 
idiot.  In  1708  Tara  Bai  was  deposed  and  imprisoned.  Forty  years  afterward, 
she  was,  as  stated  in  the  text,  once  more  intriguing  for  the  regency.  Pertinacity 
is  a  national  characteristic  of  the  Mahrattas,  male  and  female. 
X— 17  INDIA.  VOL.  I. 


886  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

sought  to  conceal  her  plans  by  publicly  declaring  that  on 
the  death  of  Sahu  she  would  burn  herself  alive  on  his  funeral 
pile. 

All  this  while  Balaji  Rao,  the  third  Peishwa,  was  bent 
on  usurping  the  sovereignty  of  the  Mahratta  empire.  *  Like 
his  predecessors,  he  was  a  type  of  those  secular  Brahmans 
who  ignore  the  religious  duties  of  their  caste  in  order  to 
pursue  their  ambitious  designs.  He  kept  a  watchful  eye 
on  the  two  princesses,  who  were  plotting  for  the  sovereign 
power,  which  he  was  resolved  to  secure  for  himself  and  his 
son  after  him.  For  a  long  time  he  was  anxious  and  hesitat- 
ing as  to  whose  cause  he  should  espouse.  At  last  he  pro- 
fessed to  believe  in  the  legitimacy  of  Raja  Ram;  intending 
in  the  end  to  set  aside  the  regency  of  Tara  Bai,  and  treat  the 
boy  Maharaja  as  a  puppet  of  his  own. 

On  the  death  of  Sahu,  Balaji  Rao  occupied  Satara  with 
troops,  and  threw  the  partisans  of  Sukwar  Bai  into  prison. 
He  then  got  rid  of  Sukwar  Bai  by  insidiously  begging  her 
not  to  burn  herself,  while  persuading  her  kinsfolk  that  the 
family  would  be  dishonored  by  the  violation  of  her  vow. 
Maddened  with  wrath  against  the  Peishwa,  the  distracted 
widow  was  forced  to  perish  in  the  flames  which  consumed 
the  body  of  her  deceased  husband. 

Balaji  Rao  behaved  very  differently  to  Tara  Bai.  For  a 
while  he  treated  her  with  the  utmost  respect  and  deference. 
Indeed  her  influence  was  necessary  to  secure  the  allegiance 
of  the  great  feudatories  of  the  Mahratta  empire ;  the  Gaekwar 
in  Guzerat,  Sindia  and  Holkar  in  Malwa,  and  the  Bhonsla 
Raja  of  Berar.  The  Bhonsla  Raja  of  Berar  was  especially 
dreaded  by  the  Peishwa;  for  he  not  only  belonged  to  the 
same  tribe  as  Sivaji,  but  he  had  always  nursed  a  secret 
design  on  the  throne  of  Satara  by  virtue  of  his  kinship  to 


1  There  were  three  Peishwas  who  successively  exercised  supreme  power  at 
Satara  as  the  hereditary  prime  ministers  of  Maharaja  Sahu.  Balaji  Vishvanath, 
the  grandfather,  died  in  1720.  Baji  Rao,  the  son,  died  in  1740.  Balaji  Rao,  the 
grandson,  and  third  Peishwa,  succeeded  to  the  post  in  1740,  and  usurped  the 
sovereignty  in  1748.  See  ante,  pp.  257-264,  269. 


BRITISH   INDIA  387 

Sivaji.  The  Bhonsla  on  his  part  was  very  jealous  of  the 
ascendency  of  the  Brahmans;  very  suspicious  of  Balaji  Rao; 
and  very  sceptical  as  regards  the  legitimacy  of  Raja  Ram. 
Tara  Bai,  however,  clinched  the  matter  by  eating  with  Raja 
Ram  in  the  presence  of  the  Bhonsla  tribe,  and  swearing  on 
the  food  that  he  was  her  legitimate  grandson.  The  Bhonsla 
of  Berar  was  thus  compelled  to  acquiesce  in  the  succession 
of  Raja  Ram;  and  none  of  the  other  feudatories  were  pre- 
pared to  resist  the  authority  of  the  hereditary  Peishwa. 

Balaji  Rao  next  proceeded  to  Poona,  the  old  stronghold 
of  Sivaji,  leaving  Tara  Bai  and  Raja  Ram  at  Satara.  He 
produced  a  deed,  purporting  to  be  under  the  hand  of  the 
deceased  Sahu,  granting  to  himself,  as  Peishwa,  the  guar- 
dianship of  the  Mahratta  empire,  so  long  as  he  maintained 
a  descendant  of  the  famous  Sivaji  on  the  throne  of  Satara. 
He  removed  all  the  officials  and  records  to  Poona;  and 
henceforth  Poona,  and  not  Satara,  was  regarded  as  the 
capital  of  the  Mahratta  empire. 

At  Poona  Balaji  Rao  retained  the  forms  of  the  old  Mah- 
ratta constitution.  Sivaji  had  appointed  eight  Purdhans 
or  ministers,  beginning  with  the  Peishwa  or  premier,  and 
including  a  treasurer,  public  record  keeper,  private  record 
keeper,  war  minister,  foreign  minister,  chief  justice,  and 
head  Shastri.1  Balaji  Rao  retained  these  ministers  in  nom- 
inal employ ;  but  he  kept  all  real  power  in  his  own  hands. 

Balaji  Rao  was  soon  prepared  to  take  advantage  of  the 
troubled  politics  of  the  times.  The  year  1748,  as  already 
stated,  was  an  epoch  in  India.9  The  war  between  the  En- 
glish and  French  in  Southern  India  had  been  brought  to  a 
close  by  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle ;  but  rival  Nizams 
were  fighting  for  the  throne  of  Hyderabad,  and  rival  Na- 
wabs  were  fighting  in  the  Carnatic  for  the  throne  of  Arcot; 

1  The  head  Shastri  was  an  important  member  of  the  Mahratta  government. 
He  was  the  expounder  of  Hindu  law  and  scriptures,  and  general  referee  in  all 
matters  of  religion,  criminal  law  and  judicial  astrology.  At  a  later  period  the 
office  was  held  by  a  celebrated  Brahman,  named  Bam  Shastri,  who  played  an 
important  part  in  the  history. 

9  See  ante,  p.  287. 


388  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

and  in  spite  of  the  peace  between  Great  Britain  and  France, 
the  English  and  French  were  soon  fighting  against  each 
other  under  pretence  of  taking  opposite  sides  in  the  native 
wars  for  the  succession.  Under  such  circumstances,  Balaji 
Rao,  like  a  true  Mahratta,  was  soon  invading  both  the 
Dekhan  and  Carnatic;  not  to  take  any  part  in  the  dissen- 
sions, unless  he  was  paid  for  it,  but  chiefly  to  collect  chout 
and  annex  districts,  while  the  regular  forces,  which  might 
have  checked  his  inroads,  were  fighting  elsewhere. 

Suddenly  Balaji  Rao  was  recalled  to  Satara.  Tara  Bai 
had  resolved  to  throw  off  his  yoke.  She  tried  to  stir  up  the 
boy  Raja  Ram  to  assert  his  sovereignty ;  and  she  called  on 
Damaji  Gaekwar  to  deliver  the  lad  from  the  thraldom  of  the 
Brahman.  Raja  Ram  was  too  stupid  or  feeble  for  her  pur- 
pose; but  Damaji  Gaekwar  obeyed  her  summons.  Mean- 
while she  struck  at  the  root  of  the  Peishwa's  authority  by 
confessing  that  Raja  Ram  was  no  descendant  of  Sivaji,  but 
a  low-caste  boy  who  had  been  changed  for  her  grandson. 
Accordingly  she  threw  Raja  Ram  into  a  dungeon,  and 
vowed  to  atone  for  her  perjury  by  rites  and  sacrifices  on 
the  bank  of  the  holy  Kistna. 

Balaji  Rao  was  equal  to  the  emergency.  He  feigned  to 
make  terms  with  the  Gaekwar,  and  then  treacherously  sur- 
rounded him  and  carried  him  off  prisoner  to  Poona.  But 
Tara  Bai  set  the  Peishwa  at  defiance;  refused  to  surrender 
Raja  Ram;  and  prepared  to  stand  a  siege  at  Satara.  Balaji 
Rao  left  her  alone  for  a  while;  he  saw  that  the  Mahratta 
people  still  regarded  her  as  their  rightful  regent ;  and  mean- 
while she  was  ruining  her  claim  to  the  regency  by  shutting 
up  the  boy  Maharaja  in  the  fortress,  and  declaring  him  to  be 
an  impostor. 

For  some  years  Balaji  Rao  carried  on  a  variety  of  opera- 
tions in  the  Dekhan  and  Carnatic.  Villages  were  ruthlessly 
plundered,  and  village  officials  were  put  to  the  torture ;  and 
if  a  fortress  ventured  to  hold  out,  and  was  reduced  by  force 
of  arms,  the  whole  garrison  was  put  to  the  sword. 

All  this  while  Balaji  Rao  was  carrying  on  some  obscure 


BRITISH   INDIA  389 

intrigues  with  Delhi.  Muhammad  Shah,  the  last  of  the 
Moghul  Padishahs  worthy  of  the  name,  had  died  in  1748, 
the  same  year  as  Sahu.  Since  then  the  Moghul  court  at 
Delhi  had  presented  a  troubled  scene  of  anarchy  and  blood- 
shed. The  successors  of  Muhammad  Shah  were  mere  pag- 
eants, who  were  set  up,  deposed,  or  murdered  by  the  Vizier; 
while  the  grandees  plotted  against  each  other,  or  intrigued 
with  Afghans  or  Mahrattas,  in  order  to  obtain  the  post  of 
Vizier,  or  that  of  Amir  of  Amirs.  Ghazi-ud-din,  the  grand- 
son of  Nizam-ul-mulk,  carried  on  a  secret  correspondence 
with  the  Mahrattas,  and  ultimately  obtained  the  post  of 
Vizier.  Nothing,  however,  is  known  of  these  intrigues  be- 
yond the  characteristic  fact  that  Balaji  Rao  found  it  con- 
venient to  procure  from  the  Vizier  imperial  firmans  for  all 
the  territories  jwhich  he  had  acquired  on  the  side  of  Hyder- 
abad during  the  wars  for  the  succession.  In  return  Balaji 
Rao  gave  help  or  countenance  to  Ghazi-ud-din. 

Damaji  Gaekwar  was  still  a  prisoner  at  Poona,  while 
Tara  Bai  was  fretting  and  fuming  at  Satara.  Balaji  Rao 
did  his  best  to  conciliate  the  old  lady ;  but  she  insisted  that 
he  should  come  to  Satara  and  acknowledge  her  authority  as 
regent.  He  sent  a  force  to  invest  Satara;  and  her  com- 
mandant, thinking  that  her  cause  was  hopeless,  formed  a 
plan  for  carrying  Raja  Ram  out  of  the  fort,  and  making  him 
over  to  the  besiegers.  But  Tara  Bai  discovered  the  plot,  and 
ordered  the  traitor  to  be  beheaded;  and  the  garrison  was 
persuaded  to  put  their  own  commandant  to  death,  together 
with  other  officers  who  had  been  implicated  in  the  conspiracy. 

The  protracted  imprisonment  of  Damaji  Gaekwar  was 
inconvenient  to  the  Peishwa.  So  long  as  the  Gaekwar  was 
shut  up  in  Poona,  no  revenue  or  tribute  was  forthcoming 
from  Guzerat.  Accordingly  the  Peishwa  and  Gaekwar  were 
forced  to  come  to  terms ;  and  the  latter  was  released  and 
returned  to  Guzerat.  At  the  same  time  Tara  Bai  was  per- 
suaded to  come  to  Poona.  She  still  hated  Balaji  Rao  and 
the  Brahmans,  but  submitted  to  her  destiny.  Balaji  Rao 
was  still  anxious  that  Raja  Ram  should  remain  shut  up  in 


390  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

Satara;  and  he  effected  his  object  by  entreating  the  old  lady 
to  release  the  boy.  Tara  Bai  was  deaf  to  the  feigned  en- 
treaties of  the  Peishwa,  and  persisted  in  keeping  Raja  Ram 
a  close  prisoner  until  her  death. 

The  English  at  Bombay  were  on  friendly  terms  with 
Balaji  Rao.  They  would  have  joined  him  in  an  expedition 
to  drive  the  French  out  of  the  Dekhan,  but  for  the  treaty  of 
Pondicherry  in  1755,  which  put  an  end  to  the  war. 

Subsequently  the  English  and  Mahrattas  concerted  a 
joint  attack  on  the  piratical  forts  of  Angria.  Colonel  Olive 
and  Admiral  Watson  stormed  the  strongholds  at  Gheria, 
but  the  Mahratta  generals  held  off,  and  carried  on  some 
treacherous  negotiations  with  Angria.  Ultimately  the  forts 
and  territory  were  made  over  to  the  Peishwa  according  to 
a  previous  arrangement;  but  Balaji  Rao  was  very  angry 
because  the  English  kept  the  treasure  and  stores  as  prize  for 
the  forces  engaged.'  He  wrote  wrathful  letters  to  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Madras  and  King  George  the  Second  on  the  subject. 
Subsequently  he  heard  that  the  N"awab  of  Bengal  had  cap- 
tured Calcutta,  and  that  Great  Britain  was  at  war  with 
France,  and  he  began  to  bluster.  The  victory  at  Plassy, 
however,  brought  him  to  his  senses,  and  nothing  more  was 
heard  of  the  Gheria  prize-money. 

Balaji  Rao  himself  was  neither  a  soldier  nor  an  adminis- 
trator. He  was  an  intriguing  Brahman — restless,  tortuous, 
and  crafty,  but  otherwise  indolent  and  sensual.  He  gave 
the  command  of  his  army  in  Hindustan  to  his  brother, 
Rughonath  Rao,  who  was  associated  with  Mulhar  Rao 
Holkar  and  Jyapa  Sindia. "  He  intrusted  the  civil  adminis- 
tration at  Poona  to  his  cousin,  Sivadas  Rao  Bhao  ;8  but  often 

1  The  treasure  in  the  forts  at  Gheria  fell  very  far  short  of  what  was  ex- 
pected. But  Angria  escaped  from  the  place  before  the  engagement  began,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that  he  bribed  the  Mahratta  generals. 

*  Jyapa,  eldest  son  of  Ranuji  Sindia,  succeeded  to  the  command  or  principal- 
ity of  his  father  about  1754.  Jyapa  Sindia  was  assassinated  at  Jodhpur  in  1759, 
and  was  succeeded  by  a  younger  brother,  named  Mahadaji  Sindia,  who  played 
an  important  part  in  the  later  history. 

3  This  Mahratta  officer  is  known  to  readers  of  Grant  Duff's  Mahratta  history 
by  the  name  of  Sewdasheo  Bhow. 


BRITISH    INDIA  391 

employed  him  to  command  his  expeditions  in  the  Dekhan 
and  Carnatic. 

Mahratta  affairs  at  this  period  resembled  a  stormy  sea. 
The  tides  of  war  and  plunder  were  ever  and  anon  bursting 
on  remote  quarters — on  Mysore  and  the  Carnatic  in  the 
Peninsula;  on  Hyderabad  and  Orissa  in  the  eastern  Dek- 
han; on  Guzerat,  Malwa,  and  Bundelkund  in  Hindustan; 
and  as  far  northward  as  Lahore  and  the  Rohilla  country. 
To  trace  these  impetuous  currents  of  bloodshed  and  deso- 
lation would  be  tedious  and  bewildering.  It  will  suffice  to 
say  that  wherever  there  was  weakness  or  "war,  black  swarms 
of  Mahratta  horsemen  flew  like  vultures  to  the  prey;  while 
their  presence  excited  as  great  a  panic  at  Delhi  and  Lahore 
as  at  Arcot  or  Seringapatam. 

Meanwhile  the  reign  of  terror  in  Delhi  was  followed  by 
a  revolution.  In  1754  the  Vizier,  Ghazi-ud-din,  deposed  and 
blinded  Ahmad  Shah,  the  son  and  successor  of  Muhammad 
Shah.  He  next  set  up  an  old  Moghul  prince,  named  Alam- 
ghir,  as  a  pageant.  In  these  violent  proceedings  he  was 
supported  by  the  Mahratta  army  under  Rughonath  Rao,  the 
brother  of  the  Peishwa,  who  was  encamped  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Delhi.  From  Delhi,  Rughonath  Rao  advanced  to 
Lahore,  and  for  a  brief  period  the  Mahrattas  were  masters 
of  the  Punjab  in  the  room  of  the  Afghans. 

All  this  time  the  new  Padishah,  Alamghir,  was  in  fear 
of  his  life,  and  began  to  open  up  secret  negotiations  with 
Ahmad  Shah  Abdali,  the  Afghan.  His  eldest  son,  known 
as  the  Shahzada,  shared  his  terrors,  and  fled  from  Delhi 
toward  Bengal,  where  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  Olive.  In 
1759  the  Vizier  put. Alamghir  to  death  on  suspicion  of  in- 
triguing with  the  Afghans;  and  he  then  placed  another 
puppet  on  the  throne  at  Delhi ;  while  the  Shahzada,  as  the 
eldest  son  of  the  murdered  Moghul,  was  proclaimed  Padi- 
shah in  Oude  and  Behar,  under  the  name  of  Shah  Alam. 

At  this  crisis  the  avenging  Nemesis  appeared  upon  the 
scene  in  the  person  of  Ahmad  Shah  Abdali,  the  Afghan 
conqueror,  who  had  been  building  up  an  Afghan  empire 


392  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

ever  since  the  death  of  Nadir  Shah.  Ahmad  Shah  Abdali 
was  furious  at  the  audacity  of  the  Mahrattas  in  entering  his 
province  of  the  Punjab.  He  drove  out  Rughonath  Rao  and 
advanced  to  Delhi,  and  became  for  a  while  the  arbiter  of  the 
destinies  of  the  Moghul  throne.  Ghazi-ud-din  fled  from  his 
wrath  into  perpetual  exile.  Jewan  Bakht,  a  son  of  Shah 
Alam,  was  placed  upon  the  throne  of  Delhi  as  the  deputy 
of  his  father;  and  Najib-ud-daula,  the  Rohilla  Afghan,  was 
appointed  regent,  or  guardian  of  the  Moghul  throne,  under 
the  title  of  Amir  of  Amirs. 

The  tide  of  Mahratta  conquest  was  thrown  back  by  the 
Afghan  invasion.  Rughonath  Rao  returned  to  Poona,  and 
was  reproached  for  the  heavy  losses  he  had  incurred  in  the 
Punjab.  He  had  left  Holkar  and  Sindia  to  maintain  their 
hold  on  upper  Hindustan ;  but  news  soon  reached  the  Dek- 
han  that  both  had  been  routed  by  the  Afghans  and  were 
flying  from  the  Jumna  to  the  Chambal. 

The  pride  of  Balaji  Rao  was  deeply  wounded  by  these 
repulses.  He  had  been  puffed  up  by  his  conquests,  and  was 
burning  to  wipe  away  the  disgrace  which  had  fallen  upon 
his  armies.  At  the  same  tune  a  national  spirit  seemed  to 
kindle  the  Hindu  people  against  the  Afghan  invaders.  The 
Mahratta  army  of  the  Dekhan  was  pushed  to  the  northward 
over  the  Nerbudda  to  the  Chambal  under  the  command  of 
Sivadas  Rao  Bhao.  Beyond  the  Chambal  the  Mahratta 
army  was  joined  by  Holkar,  Sindia,  and  the  Gaekwar. 
Many  Rajput  princes  also  hastened  to  support  the  national 
cause;  while  Jats,  Pindharies,  and  other  irregular  forces, 
flocked  to  the  increasing  host,  to  reap  a  harvest  of  plunder, 
if  not  to  share  in  the  glory  of  driving  the  Afghans  out  of 
Hindustan. 

In  January,  1761,  the  Mahrattas  received  a  crushing  de- 
feat at  Paniput.  The  details  of  that  horrible  slaughter  have 
been  told  in  a  previous  chapter.1  The  tidings  of  the  massacre 
spread  weeping  and  wailing  throughout  the  Mahratta  em- 

1  See  ante,  p.  338. 


BRITISH   INDIA  393 

pire.  Balaji  Rao  died  broken-hearted  at  the  disaster.  His 
death  was  followed  by  that  of  Tara  Bai  at  the  advanced  age 
of  eighty-six,  exalting  in  the  thought  that  she  had  lived  to 
see  the  end  of  her  hated  and  successful  rival.1 

Balaji  Rao  was  succeeded  on  the  throne  at  Poona  by  his 
young  son,  Mahdu  Rao.  The  boy  Peishwa,  the  fourth  of 
the  name  and  second  of  the  dynasty,  was  a  minor  of  seven- 
teen ;  and  his  uncle  Rughonath  Rao,  who  planted  the  Mah- 
ratta  flag  at  Lahore  and  then  retreated  to  Poona,  became 
regent  during  the  minority. 

The  reign  of  Mahdu  Rao  began  with  the  solemn  farce 
which  is  the  main  feature  of  Mahratta  history.  The  young 
Peishwa,  accompanied  by  his  uncle,  the  regent,  proceeded 
from  Poona  to  Satara  to  receive  his  investiture  as  Peishwa, 
or  minister,  from  the  puppet  descendant  of  Sivaji,  who  was 
reigning  in  a  state  prison  at  Satara  as  Maharaja  of  the  Mah- 
ratta empire.  Mahdu  Rao,  however,  was  an  amiable  youth, 
and  his  sympathies  were  enlisted  in  behalf  of  his  imprisoned 
sovereign.  Accordingly,  Ram  Raja  was  released  from  the 
fortress,  and  permitted  to  live  henceforth  as  a  prisoner  at 
large  in  the  town  of  Satara. 

At  this  juncture,  the  war  for  the  succession  to  the  throne 
of  Hyderabad  was  brought  to  a  close.  Salabut  Jung  was  a 
prisoner  while  his  younger  brother  Nizam  Ali  reigned  in  his 
room.  Nizam  Ali  took  advantage  of  the  disaster  of  the  Mah- 
rattas  at  Paniput  to  advance  an  army  toward  Poona,  in  the 
hope  of  recovering  the  territories  which  Balaji  Rao  had 
wrested  from  the  Hyderabad  dominion.  The  threatened 
invasion  was  stopped  by  a  compromise,  and  Nizam  Ali  was 
pacified  with  the  cession  of  a  part  of  the  debatable  territory. 

At  this  period  Mahdu  Rao  was  hemmed  round  with  ene- 
mies. He  was  anxious  to  take  a  part  in  the  government, 
but  was  thwarted  by  his  uncle  the  regent.  The  Mahratta 
feudatories  were  growing  disaffected,  especially  the  Bhonsla 

1  The  life  of  Tara  Bai  would  make  a  Mahratta  romance.  She  was  born  in 
1675,  when  Sivaji  was  reigning  at  Poona  and  Charles  the  Second  was  reigning 
at  Whitehall.  She  died  in  1761,  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  George  the  Third. 


394  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

Raja  of  Berar.  Rughuji  Bhonsla  died  in  1754;  but  his  son 
and  successor,  Janoji  Bhonsla,  had  inherited  the  family  jeal- 
ousy of  the  Brahmans,  and  the  latent  desire  to  seize  the  Mah- 
ratta  suzerainty.  All  this  while  Nizam  Ali  of  Hyderabad 
was  watching  the  progress  of  affairs  at  Poona;  ready  to  take 
advantage  of  the  quarrels  between  Mahdu  Rao  and  his  uncle, 
or  of  the  secret  designs  of  Janoji  Bhonsla,  or  of  any  other 
turn  in  affairs,  which  might  enable  him  to  recover  terri- 
tory and  revenue  from  the  Peishwa,  or  cripple  the  Mahratta 
power. 

The  disputes  between  Mahdu  Rao  and  his  uncle  ended  in 
the  flight  of  Rughonath  Rao  from  Poona;  but  the  fugitive 
regent  bought  the  support  of  Nizam  Ali  by  promising  to  cede 
more  territory.  At  the  same  time  Janoji  Bhonsla  of  Berar 
advanced  an  army  toward  Poona,  without  any  avowed  pur- 
pose, but,  like  Nizam  Ali,  with  the  intention  of  profiting  by 
any  change  that  turned  up.  These  complications  were 
brought  to  a  close  by  the  young  Peishwa,  who  suddenly 
submitted  himself  to  his  uncle,  Rughonath  Rao,  and  was 
promptly  imprisoned.  Nizam  Ali  then  demanded  the  ces- 
sion of  territory  which  had  been  promised  him ;  but  as  the 
regent  had  got  the  better  of  his  nephew,  and  was  strong 
enough  to  defy  the  Nizam,  he  refused  to  fulfil  his  promise. 
Nizam  Ali  saw  that  fortune  was  in  favor  of  the  regent,  and 
feigned  great  pleasure  at  the  submission  of  the  nephew  to 
the  uncle,  and  withdrew  for  a  while  from  the  scene. 

Rughonath  Rao,  finding  himself  uncontrolled  regent  at 
Poona,  proceeded,  after  Oriental  fashion,  to  revenge  himself 
on  his  domestic  enemies  by  removing  them  from  office  and 
confiscating  their  property.  This  led  to  plots  against  him; 
and  the  leaders  made  overtures  to  the  Brahman  minister  of 
Nizam  Ali.1  The  Brahman  suggested  to  his  Muhammadan 

1  Both  Nizam  Ali  of  Hyderabad  and  Hyder  Ali  of  Mysore  were  Muhammadan 
princes,  and  as  such  were  natural  enemies  of  Hindu  idolaters  like  the  Mahrattas ; 
but  both  entertained  Brahman  ministers,  and  consequently,  in  spite  of  any  open 
wars  that  were  being  carried  on,  there  were  constant  undercurrents  of  intrigue 
between  the  Brahman  rulers  of  Poona  and  the  Brahman  ministers  at  Hyderabad 
and  Mysore. 


BRITISH    INDIA  395 

master  that  the  best  way  of  overturning  the  regency  of 
Rughonath  Rao  was  to  declare  that  the  Bhonsla  Raja  of 
Berar  was  the  rightful  regent  of  the  Mahratta  empire.1 

Accordingly,  Nizam  Ali  authorized  his  minister  to  com- 
plete the  negotiations  with  the  Berar  Raja,  and  Janoji 
Bhonsla  entered  very  warmly  into  the  scheme  for  his  own 
aggrandizement.  Meanwhile  Nizam  Ali,  with  his  char- 
acteristic duplicity,  opened  up  a  secret  correspondence  with 
another  member  of  the  Bhonsla  clan,  known  as  the  Raja  of 
Kolhapore,  in  order  to  have  a  competitor  in  reserve  in  the 
event  of  Janoji  Bhonsla  proving  troublesome. 

Rughonath  Rao  soon  had  an  inkling  of  the  coming  dan- 
ger. His  nephew,  Mahdu  Rao,  although  still  kept  in  con- 
finement, supported  him  with  influence  and  counsel.  More- 
over, he  was  joined  by  Damaji  Gaekwar  of  Baroda  and 
Mulhar  Rao  Holkar;  and  the  three  Mahratta  armies  formed 
a  junction  in  order  to  give  battle  to  Nizam  Ali  and  the  rec- 
reant Bhonsla  of  Berar.  Suddenly,  however,  the  three 
armies  avoided  an  action,  and  rushed  off  in  Mahratta  fash- 
ion to  plunder  Berar  territory  by  way  of  punishing  the  per- 
fidious disloyalty  of  Janoji  Bhonsla. 

Nizam  Ah*  and  the  Bhonsla  tried  to  overtake  the  enemy, 
but  found  it  impossible,  and  accordingly  followed  their  ex- 
ample, and  marched  with  all  haste  to  the  plunder  of  Poona. 
The  inhabitants  of  Poona  were  thrown  into  a  panic  at  the 
report  of  their  approach,  and  most  of  them  fled  for  refuge 
to  the  neighboring  mountains.  The  united  armies  ransacked 
the  city,  and  burned  and  destroyed  every  house  that  the  in- 
mates were  unable  to  ransom. 

Meanwhile  Rughonath  Rao  had  gone  on  to  Hyderabad, 
and  raised  a  contribution  from  the  Nizam's  capital.  He  also 
opened  up  a  secret  correspondence  with  Janoji  Bhonsla,  who 
began  to  think  that  he  had  been  deceived  by  the  Brahman 


1  This  incident  is  remarkable,  as  showing  the  absence  of  caste  sympathy 
between  the  Brahman  minister  at  Hyderabad  and  the  Brahman  regent  at  Poona. 
The  former  was  proposing  to  set  up  a  Bhonsla  as  regent  in  the  room  of  a  Brahman. 


896  HISTOEY    OF   INDIA 

minister  of  Nizam  Ali ;  and  the  Bhonsla  was  bought  over, 
by  a  promised  cession  of  territory,  to  desert  Nizam  Ali  at  a 
fitting  opportunity,  and  join  his  forces  to  those  of  Rughonath 
Rao. 

The  hour  soon  arrived  for  carrying  out  the  scheme. 
Rughonath  Rao  became  reconciled  to  his  nephew,  the 
young  Peishwa,  and  moved  toward  the  camp  of  Nizam 
Ali  on  the  bank  of  the  river  Godavari.  One  half  of  the 
Nizam's  army  crossed  the  river,  leaving  the  remaining 
troops  under  the  command  of  his  Brahman  minister  to 
guard  the  spot  until  the  baggage  and  stores  had  been  sent 
over.  Janoji  Bhonsla  lay  encamped  with  the  Brahman, 
but  feigned  to  be  offended  at  the  non-payment  of  some 
money,  and  retreated  to  a  distance.  The  movement  was 
a  signal  to  Rughonath  Rao,  who  fell  upon  the  forces  of  the 
Brahman  minister  and  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat.  The 
battle  raged  for  two  days;  the  losses  of  the  Mahrattas 
are  unknown;  but  ten  thousand  of  the  enemy  were  re- 
ported to  have  fallen  on  the  field,  and  the  Brahman  min- 
ister was  among  the  slain. 

During  the  battle  Nizam  Ali  tried  to  open  a  cannonade 
from  the  opposite  bank,  but  without  effect ;  and  he  was  com- 
pelled to  witness  the  slaughter  of  his  soldiery,  and  then  to 
beat  a  retreat  into  his  own  territories.  Rughonath  Rao 
followed  with  his  Mahratta  army,  but  a  reconciliation  was 
effected.  The  matter  is  inexplicable.  It  is  only  known 
that  Nizam  Ali  visited  Rughonath  Rao,  expressed  contri- 
tion, laid  the  blame  of  all  that  occurred  on  the  dead  Brah- 
man minister,  and  so  worked  on  the  weakness  or  good- 
nature of  the  Mahratta  regent  that  the  latter  forgave  all 
that  had  happened,  and  actually  presented  Nizam  Ali  with 
territory  yielding  a  yearly  revenue  of  about  a  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling. 

Rughonath  Rao  paid  the  Berar  Raja  the  price  of  his 
treachery;  but  the  young  Peishwa  publicly  reproached 
Janoji  Bhonsla  for  his  duplicity  toward  both  parties,  and 
especially  for  having  joined  the  Muhammadan,  Nizam  Ali, 


BRITISH   INDIA  397 

in  trying  to  subvert  the  house  of  the  Peishwas,  to  whom 
the  Mahratta  princes  owed  all  their  power. 

About  1764,  the  rise  of  Hyder  Ali  in  Mysore  excited  the 
alarm  of  the  Mahrattas.  Rughonath  Rao  had  become  rec- 
onciled to  his  nephew,  and  Mahdu  Rao  marched  a  large 
army  to  the  south  for  the  subjugation  of  Hyder  AH.  The 
campaign  was  successful,  and  Mahdu  Rao  tried  to  keep  on 
good  terms  with  his  uncle,  by  inviting  Rughonath  Rao  to 
join  the  Mahratta  camp,  bring  the  war  to  a  close,  and  con- 
clude a  treaty  of  peace. 

Subsequently  fresh  quarrels  broke  out  between  Mahdu 
Rao  and  his  uncle,  and  were  inflamed  by  two  Mahratta 
princesses,  namely,  the  mother  of  the  Peishwa  and  the  wife 
of  Rughonath  Rao.  Mahdu  Rao  was  urged  by  his  mother 
to  imprison  his  uncle,  but  he  put  off  doing  so.  He  was 
afraid  that  his  uncle  would  gain  the  support  of  Nizam  Ali, 
or  of  Janoji  Bhonsla,  or  of  both  combined.  Mahdu  Rao 
next  joined  Nizam  Ali  in  an  invasion  of  Berar;  and  Janoji 
Bhonsla  was  compelled  to  cede  back  nearly  all  the  territories 
he  had  acquired  by  his  double  treachery. 

Subsequently  Rughonath  Rao  engaged  in  some  secret  in- 
trigue with  Mulhar  Rao  Holkar,  for  the  purpose  of  dividing 
the  Mahratta  suzerainty;  but  Holkar  died  in  1767  and  the 
design  was  abandoned.  Rughonath  Rao  next  proposed  to 
retire  from  the  world,  and  devote  the  remainder  of  his  life 
to  religious  contemplation  at  Benares.  In  1768  he  broke  out 
in  open  rebellion,  and  was  ultimately  overpowered  and  im- 
prisoned in  a  fortress,  where  he  remained  until  the  close  of 
the  reign. 

The  death  of  Mulhar  Rao  Holkar  in  1767  is  an  important 
event  hi  the  history  of  the  Holkar  dynasty.  Mulhar  Rao 
had  obtained  commissions  for  collecting  chout  in  Malwa  as 
far  back  as  the  reign  of  Maharaja  Sahu.  He  left  no  heir. 
His  son  was  dead,  but  his  son's  widow  carried  on  the  civil 
administration,  and  appointed  an  officer  named  Tukaji 
Holkar  to  be  commander-m-chief.  This  daughter-in-law 
of  Mulhar  Rao  Holkar  is  celebrated  in  Mahratta  history 


398  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

under  the  name  of  Allah  Bai.  She  was  very  superstitious 
and  extremely  lavish  to  the  Brahmans.  Accordingly  she 
is  much  praised  in  Brahmanical  traditions  as  the  incarna- 
tion of  every  virtue,  masculine  and  feminine.  Otherwise 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  she  was  anything  more 
than  a  clever  Mahratta  queen  of  the  ordinary  type,  who 
conciliated  the  Brahmans  by  her  largesses,  and  appointed  a 
favorite  to  be  commander-in-chief . 

A  characteristic  anecdote  is  told  of  Mahdu  Rao.  At  one 
time  he  sought  to  fulfil  his  religious  obligations  as  a  Brah- 
man by  engaging  in  divine  contemplations  for  the  deliver- 
ance of  his  soul  from  the  vortex  of  transmigrations.  At 
this  period  the  head  Shastri  in  the  Poona  cabinet  was  an 
eminent  Brahman,  named  Ram  Shastri.  One  day  Ram 
Shastri  visited  the  Peishwa  on  business,  and  found  Mahdu 
Rao  absorbed  in  pious  abstraction  from  the  world,  with 
every  faculty  of  mind  and  body  engaged  in  meditations  on 
the  Supreme  Spirit.  Ram  Shastri  hastily  left  the  room,  but 
next  day  begged  permission  to  retire  from  court  and  go  to 
Benares.  Mahdu  Rao  saw  he  had  given  offence,  and  apolo- 
gized for  his  apparent  neglect  on  the  previous  day,  but  de- 
fended it  on  the  score  of  piety.  Ram  Shastri,  however, 
rebuked  him,  saying  that  if  he  wished  to  fulfil  his  duties  as 
a  Brahman  he  should  abdicate  the  throne  and  devote  the 
remainder  of  his  days  to  contemplating  the  Supreme  Spirit 
at  Benares;  but  that  if  he  chose  to  reign  as  Peishwa  he 
should  give  all  his  time  and  energies  to  the  welfare  of  his 
people,  as  the  only  way  by  which  the  Brahman  Peishwas 
could  justify  their  assumption  of  sovereignty.  Mahdu  Rao 
received  the  rebuke  in  a  becoming  spirit,  and  abstained  ever 
afterward  from  all  religious  practices  which  interfered  with 
his  duties  as  a  sovereign. 

Ram  Shastri  is  celebrated  in  Mahratta  annals  as  a  pure 
and  upright  judge.  He  was  born  at  a  village  near  Satara, 
but  left  his  home  at  an  early  age  to  study  at  Benares.  Later 
on  he  was  selected,  without  any  solicitation  on  his  part,  for 
the  post  of  head  Shastri  at  Poona;  and  when  Mahdu  Rao 


BRITISH   INDIA  399 

began  to  take  a  part  in  the  government,  it  was  Ram  Shastri 
who  instructed  him  in  the  conduct  of  the  administration. 
The  greatest  evil-doers  at  Poona  are  said  to  have  stood  in 
awe  of  Ram  Shastri;  and  although  persons  of  rank  and 
riches  occasionally  tried  to  corrupt  him,  yet  no  one  dared  to 
repeat  the  experiment,  or  to  impeach  his  integrity. 

Throughout  the  whole  reign  of  Mahdu  Eao,  the  English 
in  Bengal  were  struggling  through  a  sea  of  difficulties. 
Janoji  Bhonsla,  Raja  of  Berar,  was  incessantly  demand- 
ing chout  for  Bengal  and  Behar,  first  from  Mir  Jafir,  then 
from  Mir  Kasim,  and  finally  from  Lord  Olive;  and  Clive 
was  prepared  to  pay  the  chout  provided  the  Mahrattas  ceded 
Orissa,  but  the  Directors  in  England  utterly  scouted  the 
idea.  Fortunately,  as  already  seen,  the  Bhonsla  was  too 
busy  with  the  intrigues  at  Hyderabad  and  Poona,  and  too 
much  alarmed  at  the  artillery  and  battalions  of  the  English 
company,  to  attempt  to  collect  the  chout  by  force  of  arms. 

All  this  while  the  English  at  Bombay  were  making 
friendly  advances  to  Mahdu  Rao,  the  Peishwa.  They  were 
anxious  to  possess  the  island  of  Salsette  and  peninsula  of 
Bassein,  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Bombay,  for  the 
protection  of  then*  harbor;  but  the  Mahrattas  had  conquered 
those  places  from  the  Portuguese,  and  were  so  proud  of  their 
success  against  Europeans  that  they  would  not  part  with 
either  on  any  terms.  In  1767,  and  again  in  1772,  an  English 
Resident  was  sent  to  the  court  of  Poona.  He  was  instructed 
to  cultivate  friendly  relations  with  the  Peishwa  and  his  min- 
isters, and  to  leave  no  stone  unturned  that  would  induce  the 
Poona  government  to  part  with  Salsette  and  Bassein  by  sale, 
or  by  any  other  way. 

These  relations  between  Bombay  and  the  Peishwa  led  to 
an  awkward  diplomatic  difficulty  in  the  relations  between 
Madras  and  Hyder  Ali  of  Mysore.  In  1769  a  defensive 
treaty  had  been  concluded  with  Hyder  Ali.  Subsequently 
Hyder  Ali  engaged  in  a  fresh  war  with  the  Peishwa,  and 
called  upon  the  English  at  Madras  to  help  him  in  accordance 
with  this  treaty.  The  English  at  Madras  were  thus  placed 


400  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

in  a  dilemma.  It  would  have  been  the  height  of  folly  for 
Madras  to  have  helped  in  a  war  against  the  Peishwa,  while 
Bombay  was  trying  to  coax  the  Peishwa  into  parting  with 
Salsette  and  Bassein.  Again  the  English  at  Madras  could 
not  possibly  secure  the  Carnatic  from  invasion.  If  they 
helped  Hyder  Ali  the  Mahrattas  would  invade  the  Carnatic, 
and  if  they  did  not  help  him  the  Mysore  army  would  invade 
the  Carnatic.  Under  such  circumstances  the  Madras  gov- 
ernment could  do  nothing  but  lament  the  unfortunate  treaty 
which  had  drawn  them  into  such  a  muddle. 

Meantime  the  court  at  Delhi  was  attracting  the  attention 
of  the  Mahrattas.  Najib-ud-daula,  the  guardian  of  the  Mo- 
ghul  throne,  must  have  been  a  man  of  capacity.  He  had 
risen  from  the  command  of  a  small  body  of  horse  to  the  su- 
preme authority  at  Delhi ;  and  from  the  battle  of  Paniput  in 
1761,  until  his  death  in  1770,  he  retained  the  sovereign  power 
in  his  own  hands,  in  spite  of  the  enemies  that  threatened  him 
on  every  side. 

In  1763  Delhi  was  threatened  by  the  Jats.  This  mysteri- 
ous race  are  supposed  to  have  been  akin  to  the  ancient  Getse. 
They  may  be  described  as  Hinduized  Scythians,  who  had 
entered  the  Punjab  at  some  remote  period  and  established 
outposts  in  Hindustan.  Many  of  the  Jats  who  settled  in  the 
Punjab  became  Sikhs.  Those  in  Hindustan  founded  a  prin- 
cipality between  Ulwar  and  Agra  on  the  basis  of  f reebooting 
and  plunder;  and  this  predatory  power  has  since  been  con- 
verted into  a  peaceful  state,  and  is  represented  in  the  present 
day  by  the  Raj  of  Bhurtpore. 

The  hero  of  the  Jats  in  the  eighteenth  century  was  a 
rude  warrior  named  Suraj  Mai.  The  exploits  of  this  semi- 
barbarous  chieftain  resemble  those  of  Sivaji.  Like  Sivaji 
his  strength  lay  in  his  fortresses.  He  built,  or  perhaps  only 
repaired,  four  vast  fortresses  of  mud  baked  in  the  sun,  of 
which  Bhurtpore  and  Deeg  are  existing  types.  They  were 
impervious  to  cannon,  and  were  regarded  as  impregnable 
down  to  comparatively  modern  times. 

In  1764  Suraj  Mai  was  joined  by  the  infamous  Sumru, 


BRITISH   INDIA  401 

the  Patna  miscreant  who  had  fled  from  the  Nawab  Vizier  of 
Oude,  and  was  glad  to  enter  the  service  of  the  Jat  Raja. 
Suraj  Mai  was  puffed  up  by  this  addition  to  his  forces,  and 
began  to  threaten  Delhi ;  and  Najib-ud-daula  sent  an  envoy 
with  a  present  of  flowered  chintz  to  conciliate  him.  Suraj 
Mai  was  delighted  with  the  chintz,  and  ordered  it  to  be  made 
into  a  suit  of  clothes ;  but  he  refused  to  talk  of  anything  else, 
and  the  envoy  retired  in  disgust.  Suraj  Mai  advanced  with 
an  army  to  Delhi,  but  instead  of  besieging  the  city  he  went 
out  to  hunt,  by  way  of  bravado,  in  the  imperial  park  of  the 
Great  Moghul.  He  and  his  retinue  were  surrounded  by  a 
flying  squadron  of  Moghul  horse,  and  were  slaughtered  to 
a  man.  The  dead  body  of  the  Raja  was  found  arrayed  in 
the  chintz.  The  head  was  cut  off,  and  carried  on  a  lance; 
and  the  Jats  were  so  terrified  at  the  sight  that  they  fled  back 
to  their  own  country. 

The  Jat  principality  then  became  a  scene  of  horrible  tur- 
moil. The  sons  of  Suraj  Mai  were  all  fighting  or  murdering 
one  another.  At  last  a  surviving  son  named  Ranjit  Singh 
secured  the  chiefship.  His  territory  bristled  with  forts,  and 
was  reckoned  to  yield  a  yearly  revenue  of  two  millions  ster- 
ling, and  to  maintain  an  army  of  sixty  thousand  men.1 
Ranjit  Singh  was  one  of  the  predatory  powers  of  Hindustan 
who  had  learned  to  trim  between  Afghans  and  Mahrattas. 

In  1764-65  Najib-ud-daula  was  intriguing  with  the  En- 
glish at  Calcutta.  He  was  expecting  Governor  Spencer  to 
cede  the  territory  of  Oude,  and  to  send  Shah  Alam  to  Delhi. 
Had  these  measures  been  carried  out,  Najib-ud-daula  would 
have  been  exalted  to  the  real  sovereignty  of  Hindustan; 
while  the  ascendency  of  the  Rohilla  Afghans  would  have 
been  extended  from  the  upper  Jumna  to  the  Carumnassa. 
But  Lord  Olive,  as  already  seen,  broke  up  the  whole  scheme; 
and  Oude,  instead  of  being  a  menace  to  Behar  and  Bengal, 


1  A  native  army  in  the  last  century  was  a  mere  mob  of  followers,  without 
discipline  or  organization.  The  reports  as  regards  the  number  of  troops  in  such 
an  army  are  altogether  unreliable,  and  there  is  no  possible  means  of  checking 
the  native  estimate. 


402  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

was  converted  into  a  barrier  against  Afghans  and  Mah- 
rattas. 

In  1767,  the  same  year  that  Lord  Olive  left  India  forever, 
Ahmad  Shah  Abdali  advanced  an  Afghan  army  for  the  last 
time  against  Delhi,  in  the  hope  of  once  more  enriching  his 
coffers  with  the  plunder  of  Hindustan.  Najib-ud-daula 
feigned  to  join  the  invaders,  but  created  delays  and  thwarted 
operations,  until  Ahmad  Shah  was  at  his  wits'  end.  The 
Afghan  troops  were  harassed  by  the  Sikhs,  oppressed  by  the 
hot  weather,  and  threatened  with  the  approach  of  the  rainy 
season.  At  the  same  time  they  were  breaking  out  in  mu- 
tiny from  want  of  pay  or  plunder.  At  last  Ahmad  Shah 
was  obliged  to  rest  content  with  a  small  supply  of  money 
from  Najib-ud-daula,  and  to  return  baffled  and  disheartened 
to  Kabul  and  Kandahar. 

By  this  time  the  Mahrattas  had  recovered  their  losses  at 
Paniput.  In  1769  the  army  of  the  Peishwa  crossed  the 
Chambal  to  the  number  of  fifty  thousand  horse.  They 
levied  arrears  of  tribute  from  the  Rajput  princes  to  the 
value  of  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling.  They  next 
entered  the  territory  of  the  Jats,  under  pretence  of  helping 
one  of  the  sons  of  Suraj  Mai,  and  exacted  a  contribution  of 
more  than  six  hundred  thousand  pounds.  Najib-ud-daula 
was  thrown  into  alarm,  and  made  overtures  to  the  Mahrat- 
tas for  an  accommodation;  but  he  died  in  1770,  and  was 
succeeded  in  the  post  of  Amir  of  Amirs  by  his  son,  Zabita 
Khan. 

Meanwhile  Mahadaji  Sindia  appeared  upon  the  scene.1 
This  ambitious  warrior,  like  the  other  feudatories  of  the 
Mahratta  empire,  was  of  low  origin.  In  a  previous  gen- 
eration, his  father,  Ranuji  Sindia,  had  been  trusted  with  the 
menial  duty  of  carrying  the  Peishwa's  slippers,  but  had  sub- 
sequently risen  to  high  military  commands,  and  secured  a 
territorial  estate  for  his  family.  Mahadaji  Sindia  was  an 
illegitimate  son ;  but  he  was  a  man  of  undoubted  capacity, 

1  See  ante,  p.  390,  note. 


BRITISH    INDIA  403 

and  had  won  his  laurels  in  the  Dekhan  wars  of  1751.  Sub- 
sequently the  question  of  succession  to  the  territorial  estate 
was  referred  to  the  Peishwa  as  suzerain;  and  Rughonath 
Rao  opposed  the  claims  of  Mahadaji,  while  Mahdu  Rao  sup- 
ported them. 

In  1771  Mahadaji  Sindia  was  the  hero  of  an  achievement 
which  startled  all  Hindustan.  He  drew  the  Padishah,  Shah 
Alam,  out  of  his  protected  retreat  at  Allahabad,  and  con- 
veyed him  to  the  Moghul  capital.  Shah  Alam  was  restored 
to  the  throne  of  his  fathers ;  Zabita  Khan  fled  to  the  Rohilla 
country;  and  the  Mahrattas  recovered  their  supremacy  at 
Hindustan. 

In  1772  Mahdu  Rao  Peishwa  died  of  consumption,  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  younger  brother,  Narain  Rao.  Mah- 
ratta  history  entered  on  a  new  phase.  The  plots  and  in- 
trigues at  Poona  drew  the  Bombay  settlement  into  a  vortex 
which  culminated  in  the  first  Mahratta  war.  The  story  of 
this  war  belongs  to  the  administration  of  Warren  Hastings, 
and  will  be  told  in  the  following  chapter. 

Mahratta  history,  as  told  in  the  foregoing  pages,  *vill  ap- 
pear bewildering  to  European  readers ;  but  it  is  nevertheless 
of  value  as  a  reflex  of  Hindu  politics  and  ruling  ideas.  It 
brings  out  the  characteristics  of  Hindu  princes  and  priests  in 
the  eighteenth  century ;  and  it  also  furnishes  a  key  to  Hindu 
history  from  a  remote  antiquity.  Indeed  the  Mahratta  em- 
pire may  be  accepted  as  a  type  of  all  Hindu  empires.  It  was 
founded  by  warriors  who  were  little  better  than  freebooters, 
and  governed  by  Brahman  ministers,  who  often,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Peishwas,  succeeded  in  usurping  the  sovereign 
power. 


404  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 


CHAPTER    VI 
ENGLISH   RULE-WARREN  HASTINGS 

A.D.   1772   TO  1785 

THE  government  of  Warren  Hastings  is  perhaps  the 
most  important  in  the  history  of  British  India.  It 
was,  however,  so  blackened  by  his  enemies  and  be- 
lauded by  his  friends,  that  few  of  his  contemporaries  under- 
stood its  real  character ;  and  the  records  of  the  period  are  a 
mass  of  controversy  and  confusion. 

The  previous  career  of  Hastings  is  creditable  as  far  as  it 
is  known.  In  1750,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  landed  at  Cal- 
cutta for  the  first  time.  For  seven  years  longer  the  Com- 
pany was  a  mere  firm  of  merchants.  Hastings  was  employed 
to  sort  silks  and  muslins,  and  to  invoice  opium  and  saltpetre; 
but  he  managed  to  learn  Hindustani  and  pick  up  some  knowl- 
edge of  Persian.  After  the  victory  at  Plassy  he  entered  into 
political  life  as  Resident  at  Murshedabad.  Next  he  played 
an  important  part  in  the  council  of  Governor  Vansittart  at 
Calcutta.  In  1764  he  returned  to  England  and  became  poor. 
In  1769  he  came  back  to  India  as  member  of  council  at  Ma- 
dras. Three  years  afterward  he  was  selected  for  the  most 
important  post  in  the  Company's  service,  namely,  that  of 
Governor  of  Bengal. 

Governor  Hastings  was  forty  years  of  age,  and  had  evi- 
dently read  much  and  thought  much.  Within  a  few  months 
after  his  arrival  in  Calcutta  he  placed  the  whole  of  the  ad- 
ministration, revenue  and  judicial,  on  a  reformed  footing. 
He  turned  the  European  supervisors  into  collectors  of  rev- 
enue ;  abolished  the  more  obnoxious  cesses ;  and  reduced  the 
number  of  inland  custom  houses.  He  went  on  a  tour  through 


BRITISH   INDIA  405 

the  districts,  accompanied  by  four  members  of  council,  and 
leased  out  the  lands  for  five  years  at  fixed  rates.  Whenever 
a  Zemindar  came  to  terms  he  was  retained  in  the  possession 
of  his  district.  Whenever  a  Zemindar  held  out  he  was 
granted  a  subsistence  allowance  and  the  land  was  leased  to 
the  highest  bidder.  So  far  Hastings  acted  much  after  the 
fashion  of  Nawab  Murshed  Kuli  Khan,  in  the  old  days  of 
Moghul  rule. 

Governor  Hastings  transferred  all  judicial  powers  from 
the  Zemindars  to  the  European  collectors.  He  established 
a  civil  and  a  criminal  court  in  each  district,  in  which  the 
European  collector  sat  as  President,  and  was  assisted  by 
Muhammadan  and  Hindu  officials.  He  abolished  the  judge's 
fee  of  one  quarter  of  the  amount  in  dispute,  which  under 
native  rule  had  always  been  levied  in  civil  cases.  He  drew 
up  a  simple  code  of  regulations  for  the  new  courts,  which 
abolished  all  the  glaring  evils  which  had  existed  under  the 
native  system.  The  details  are  of  no  interest  in  the  pres- 
ent day,  excepting  so  far  as  they  redound  to  the  credit  of 
Warren  Hastings,  who  was  unquestionably  the  ablest  and 
most  successful  administrator  that  ever  governed  Bengal. 

Meanwhile  Muhammad  Reza  Khan  and  Raja  Shitab  Rai 
were  brought  down  to  Calcutta;  and  the  conduct  of  their 
respective  administrations  was  brought  under  judicial  in- 
vestigation. Nothing,  however,  could  be  judicially  proved. 
No  charges  were  substantiated,  except  by  accusers  acting 
from  interested  motives,  or  by  men  of  a  notoriously  bad 
character.  No  native  of  standing  and  respectability,  who 
had  learned  to  know  and  fear  the  deputy  Nawabs,  was 
likely  to  bring  charges  against  men  who  might  be  eventually 
restored  to  authority  and  power.  Moreover  there  must  have 
been  many  Englishmen  anxious  to  screen  the  accused.  In 
the  end  both  were  acquitted.  Raja  Shitab  Rai  was  restored 
to  his  post  and  died  shortly  afterward ;  but  Hastings  utterly 
refused  to  restore  Muhammad  Reza  Khan.1 

1  Judicial  inquiries  are  always  unsatisfactory  in  India.  The  law  will  often 
acquit  a  known  criminal  from  the  contradictory  character  of  the  evidence.  Mr. 


406  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

But  native  administration  had  received  its  death-blow; 
the  authority  of  the  deputy  Nawab  Nazims  was  gone  forever. 
The  central  offices  of  revenue  were  removed  to  Calcutta,  and 
placed  under  the  supervision  of  English  officials,  under  the 
name  of  a  Board  of  Revenue.  Two  new  courts  of  appeal 
were  established  at  Calcutta,  in  which  the  Governor  or  a 
member  of  council  sat  as  President,  assisted  by  learned 
Munshis  and  Pundits.  Henceforth  Calcutta  was  the  capi- 
tal of  Bengal  and  Behar;  and  Murshedabad  dwindled  into 
insignificance  as  the  residence  of  a  Nawab  Nazim  without 
authority  or  power. 

Meanwhile  the  flight  of  Shah  Alam  from  Allahabad  to 
Delhi  in  1771  had  broken  the  political  ties  which  bound  the 
English  to  the  Great  Moghul.  Henceforth  the  English  held 
possession  of  Bengal  and  Behar,  not  by  a  sham  association 
with  a  puppet  Nawab  Nazim,  nor  by  the  affectation  of  act- 
ing as  Dewan  to  a  puppet  Padishah,  but  by  the  right  of  the 
sword,  and  the  sword  alone. 

Shah  Alam  had  deserted  the  English  for  the  Mahrattas, 
in  the  wild  hope  of  reigning  over  Hindustan,  like  another 
Aurangzeb  or  Akbar.  The  Mahrattas,  under  Mahadaji 
Sindia  drove  out  the  Rohilla  guardian  of  the  Moghul  em- 
pire, and  restored  Shah  Alam  to  the  throne  at  Delhi.1  But 
the  new  Padishah  suffered  very  considerably  by  the  change. 
He  had  been  a  mere  pageant  under  the  protection  of  the 
English;  and  he  was  still  a  mere  pageant  in  the  hands  of 
Mahadaji  Sindia;  but  he  had  thrown  away  the  tribute  from 


James  Mill  had  emphatically  a  judicial  mind,  and  it  has  led  him  into  grave  his- 
torical errors.  He  convicted  Governor  Vansittart  of  receiving  a  bribe  on  native 
evidence  alone ;  and  that  evidence  has  been  proved  by  government  records  to  be 
absolutely  false.  Again,  Mr.  Mill  accepted  the  acquittal  of  both  Muhammad 
Reza  Khan  and  Raja  Shitab  Rai,  when  it  was  impossible  that  they  should  have 
been  innocent.  Nevertheless  the  treatment  of  both  men  was  harsh  and  op- 
pressive. It  was  what  might  have  beeu  expected  from  Oriental  potentates,  but 
was  unworthy  of  the  British  government. 

1  Najib-ud-daula,  the  guardian  of  the  Moghul  empire,  died  at  Delhi  in  1770, 
and  was  succeeded  in  the  post  by  his  son,  Zabita  Khan.  On  the  approach  of 
Shah  Alam  and  the  Mahrattas  to  the  city  of  Delhi,  Zabita  Khan  fled  to  the 
Rohilla  country.  Thus  for  a  brief  period  the  ascendency  of  the  Rohill*  Afghans 
at  Delhi  was  superseded  by  that  of  the  Mahrattas. 


BRITISH    INDIA 


407 


INDIA 

in  Oie  time  of 


408  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

Bengal  and  Oude,  which  had  been  given  to  him  under  Lord 
Olive's  settlement  of  1765,  and  which  not  only  relieved  him 
from  his  previous  penury,  but  sufficed  for  the  maintenance 
of  his  sham  suzerainty  at  Allahabad.1 

These  losses  were  a  painful  surprise  to  Mahadaji  Sindia 
as  well  as  to  Shah  Alam.  Mahadaji  Sindia  had  restored 
Shah  Alam  to  his  throne  for  the  sole  purpose  of  ruling  over 
Hindustan  in  the  name  of  the  Great  Moghul;  and  he  had 
fondly  expected  to  receive  the  yearly  tribute  of  a  quarter  of 
a  million  sterling  for  the  Bengal  provinces,  as  well  as  the 
revenues  of  Allahabad  and  Korah,  which  had  been  assigned 
to  Shah  Alam  in  lieu  of  tribute  from  Oude.  Accordingly 
Mahadaji  Sindia  demanded  the  payments  in  the  name  of 
Shah  Alam,  very  shortly  after  his  arrival  at  Delhi,  but  met 
with  an  unqualified  refusal. 

The  English  in  Bengal  decided  that  as  Shah  Alam  had 
broken  off  his  relations  with  the  East  India  Company  by  his 
flight  to  Delhi,  he  had  in  like  manner  forfeited  his  claim  to 
the  imperial  tribute  which  he  had  drawn  under  their  guar- 
antee. At  the  same  time  the  English  knew  that  the  money, 
if  granted,  would  only  go  into  the  pockets  of  the  Mahrattas 
— the  predatory  power  which  had  been  the  terror  of  India 
for  more  than  a  century. 

The  equity  of  this  refusal  of  the  English  company  to  con- 
tinue the  payment  of  the  imperial  tribute  was  much  debated 
at  the  time,  but  to  no  practical  purpose.  The  Moghul  em- 
pire was  politically  dead  when  Lord  Olive  tried  to  rehabili- 
tate Shah  Alam  as  a  spectre  of  the  past;  and  the  flight  of 
Shah  Alam  t^ack  to  Delhi  was  like  the  return  of  the  spectre 
to  its  cemetery.  So  long  as  the  Padishah  remained  under 
the  protection  of  the  English,  they  had  been  willing  to  mam- 
tain  him  as  a  pageant  to  be  fluttered  in  the  eyes  of  the 
French  and  Dutch  as  a  show  of  Moghul  sovereignty.  But 
when  he  threw  himself  on  the  protection  of  the  Mahrattas, 
there  was  nothing  to  be  gained  by  paying  the  tribute ;  and 

1  See  ante,  pp.  36^  366 


BRITISH   INDIA  400 

the  refusal  to  pay  was  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  war 

and  assertion  of  independent  sovereignty,  which  Moghul  or 
Mahratta  could  only  set  aside  by  force  of  arms. 

But  although  the  Mahrattas  were  not  prepared  to  wage 
war  against  the  English,  they  were  pertinacious  in  urging 
their  claims.  Accordingly  they  began  to  threaten  the  Nawab 
Vizier  of  Oude;  and  they  invaded  and  plundered  the  Rohilla 
country  on  his  northwestern  frontier.  But  they  were  willing 
to  forego  further  plunder  in  the  Rohilla  country,  provided 
that  Hafiz  Khan,  the  Rohilla  ruler,  would  permit  them  to 
march  unmolested  through  his  territory  for  the  invasion  and 
plunder  of  Oude. 

The  Nawab  Vizier  had  fenced  off  the  evil  day  by  making 
a  treaty  with  Hafiz  Khan.  He  engaged  to  drive  the  Mah- 
rattas out  of  the  Rohilla  country ;  but  in  return  for  this  ser- 
vice he  had  exacted  a  pledge  from  Hafiz  Khan  to  pay  him 
forty  lakhs  of  rupees,  or  four  hundred  thousand  pounds  ster- 
ling. Subsequently  the  Mahrattas  were  drawn  away  from 
Hindustan  by  domestic  troubles.  Madhu  Rao  Peishwa  had 
died  at  Poona,  and  disputes  had  arisen  as  regards  the  succes- 
sion; and  Mahadaji  Sindia  and  Tukaji  Holkar  deemed  it 
expedient  to  return  to  the  Dekhan.  Consequently  the  Mah- 
ratta scare  passed  away  from  the  Rohilla  country ;  while  the 
Nawab  Vizier  of  Oude  was  relieved  from  all  danger  of  Mah- 
ratta invasions.  Under  such  circumstances  the  Nawab  Vizier 
recovered  sufficient  heart  to  form  plans  for  his  own  aggran- 
dizement. He  turned  a  covetous  eye  on  the  Rohilla  country, 
and  began  to  show  his  teeth  by  demanding  payment  of  the 
forty  lakhs  from  Hafiz  Khan.  The  claim  was  disavowed  by 
Hafiz  Khan,  and  possibly  on  good  grounds;  but  at  this  dis- 
tance of  time  it  would  be  -useless  to  inquire  into  the  rights  of 
a  money  dispute  between  the  Nawab  Vizier  and  the  Rohilla 
ruler. 

The  Nawab  Vizier,  doubtless,  had  his  own  quarrel  with 

the  Rohilla  Afghans.     He  was  a  Shiah  and  they  were  Sun- 

nis ;    and  as  he  could  not  rely  on  their  friendship,  he  was 

anxious  to  extirpate  their  power  and  take  possession  of  their 

X— 18  INDIA.    VOL.  L 


410  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

country.  But  he  wanted  the  services  of  one  of  the  Com- 
pany's brigades;  and  he  offered  to  pay  Governor  Hastings 
the  expenses  of  the  brigade  so  long  as  it  remained  in  his 
country,  and  to  make  over  the  forty  lakhs  into  the  bargain. 
Accordingly  hi  1773  Governor  Hastings  agreed  to  meet  the 
Nawab  Vizier  at  Benares. 

The  Rohillas  were  doubtless  a  troublesome  people;  and, 
like  Afghans  in  general,  they  were  often  at  war  among 
themselves.  They  had  established  a  dominion  over  the 
Hindu  population  between  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Ganges 
and  the  northwestern  frontier  of  Oude.  They  were  a  thorn 
in  the  side  of  the  Nawab  Vizier.  They  might  possibly  have 
proved  a  barrier  to  Oude  against  the  Mahrattas;  but  pos- 
sibly they  might  come  to  terms  with  the  Mahrattas,  and  not 
only  permit  the  Mahratta  marauders  to  march  through  their 
country,  but  take  a  part  in  the  invasion  and  plunder  of 
Oude. 

"Warren  Hastings  had  also  to  consider  the  Rohilla  ques- 
tion from  an  English  point  of  view.  The  Rohilla  Afghans 
were  a  long  way  off ;  not  only  beyond  the  British  frontier, 
but  beyond  the  Oude  frontier ;  and  the  Directors  had  repeat- 
edly ordered  its  servants  in  Bengal  to  keep  within  the  river 
Carumnassa.  Moreover,  the  English  had  no  quarrel  with 
the  Rohillas ;  and  they  knew  nothing  of  the  rights  or  wrongs 
of  the  rupture  between  the  Nawab  Vizier  and  the  Rohillas 
beyond  what  the  Nawab  Vizier  might  choose  to  tell  them. 

But  the  Bengal  treasury  was  empty,  and  the  Directors 
were  pressing  Governor  Hastings  for  funds ;  moreover  the 
promised  supply  would  not  only  fill  the  treasury,  but  relieve 
the  Company  of  nearly  one-third  of  its  military  expenditure 
in  Bengal.  Accordingly,  Governor  Hastings  came  to  terms 
with  the  Nawab  Vizier  at  Benares ;  and  moreover  made  over 
Allahabad  and  Korah  to  the  Nawab  Vizier  for  another  sum 
of  fifty  lakhs,  or  half  a  million  sterling. 

The  only  question  was  whether  the  Nawab  Vizier  did  not 
remove  the  scruples  of  Governor  Hastings  by  a  private  pres- 
ent of  a  few  lakhs  for  himself.  The  character  of  Hastings 


BRITISH    INDIA  411 

up  to  this  date  would  contradict  such  a  suspicion;  but  in 
England  he  had  felt  the  pressure  of  want;  he  had  seen  his 
fellows  coming  home  with  large  fortunes;  and  the  tempta- 
tion must  have  been  strong  to  a  man  schooled  in  dealings 
with  natives.  Innocent  or  guilty,  he  laid  himself  open  to 
suspicion.  He  conducted  the  negotiations  at  Benares  with 
the  utmost  privacy;  and  the  English  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Bengal  army  was  especially  angry  at  being  shut  out 
from  all  share  hi  the  dealings  with  the  Nawab  Vizier.  Hast- 
ings could  have  had  no  object  in  maintaining  so  much  secrecy 
in  his  money  dealings  with  the  Nawab  Vizier,  otherwise  than 
that  of  securing  a  money  present  for  himself ;  and  the  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  Bengal  army  could  have  had  no  ground 
for  exasperation  at  being  shut  out  from  the  interview,  had 
he  not  in  like  manner  reckoned  on  receiving  a  handsome 
douceur.  However,  the  bargain  was  concluded,  and  nothing 
further  could  be  said ;  but  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  the  ene- 
mies of  Hastings  had  formed  their  own  opinion  of  what  at 
best  was  a  dubious  transaction.1 

In  January,  1774,  the  English  brigade  was  marched 
through  Oude  into  the  Rohilla  country,  accompanied  by  the 
Nawab  Vizier  and  a  large  army.  The  Rohillas  were  de- 
feated by  the  English,  and  by  the  English  alone.  The 
Rohillas  fled  in  all  directions,  leaving  Hafiz  Khan  among 
the  slain.  The  Nawab  Vizier  was  equally  cowardly  and 
cruel.  He  kept  his  troops  at  a  distance  during  the  battle, 
but  when  it  was  over  he  let  them  loose  on  the  unhappy  coun- 
try to  murder,  plunder,  and  commit  every  atrocity  of  which 
Asiatics  are  capable.  The  English  commander  of  the  brig- 
ade was  utterly  disgusted  with  the  cowardice  and  cruelty 
displayed  on  all  sides.  "The  English,"  he  declared,  "have 


1  It  is  a  current  article  of  faith  among  Orientals  that  wherever  there  is  secrecy 
there  is  either  treachery  or  corruption.  Accordingly  a  native  envoy  will  often 
refuse  an  interview  unless  his  leading  followers  are  present,  or  unless  he  actually 
contemplates  treachery  or  corruption.  The  enemies  of  Hastings  not  only  com- 
plained of  his  mysterious  secrecy,  but  whispered  that  he  was  in  pressing  need 
of  money  to  provide  for  Imhoff,  the  portrait  painter,  and  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  the  divorce  of  Mrs.  Imhoff,  who  afterward  became  his  wife. 


412  HISTORY   OF    INDIA 

had  all  the  fighting,  while  these  bandits  have  had  all  the 
plunder." 

It  was  unfortunate  for  the  honor  of  the  nation  that  the 
English  should  have  appeared  to  sanction  such  barbarities; 
but  this  was  the  curse  of  native  alliances  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  it  is  difficult  to  blame  Hastings  for  the  atroci- 
ties committed  by  the  Nawab  Vizier.  In  other  respects  the 
war  was  brought  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion.  The  Nawab 
Vizier  concluded  a  treaty  with  a  surviving  son  of  Hafiz 
Khan,  named  Faiz-ullah  Khan,  under  which  Faiz-ullah 
Khan  became  his  vassal.  Henceforth  Faiz-ullah  Khan  and 
his  descendants  were  known  as  the  Nawabs  of  Rampore. 

Meanwhile  Governor  Hastings  had  appointed  an  English 
servant  of  the  Company,  named  Middleton,  to  reside  at 
Lucknow  as  the  medium  of  all  his  correspondence  with  the 
Nawab  Vizier.  The  amounts  due  to  the  Company  were 
being  paid  by  instalments,  and  matters  seem  to  have  been 
progressing  smoothly.  Suddenly  there  was  a  revolution  in 
the  English  government  at  Calcutta,  which  nearly  drove 
Warren  Hastings  from  his  post  and  threatened  to  under- 
mine the  Company's  power  in  India. 

The  disordered  state  of  the  Company's  affairs  had  induced 
the  British  ministry  to  reorganize  the  Bengal  government. 
In  1774  Warren  Hastings  was  appointed  Governor- General 
of  all  the  British  settlements  in  India,  as  well  as  Governor 
of  Bengal.  The  council  at  Calcutta  had  hitherto  consisted 
of  ten  or  twelve  members  who  were  servants  of  the  Com- 
pany. This  was  abolished,  and  a  council  of  five  was  nomi- 
nated in  its  room.  Mr.  Hastings  took  his  seat  as  president 
by  virtue  of  his  office,  with  a  single  vote  as  member  of  coun- 
cil, and  a  casting  vote  when  parties  were  equally  divided. 
Mr.  Barwell,  a  servant  of  the  Company  in  India,  was  also 
appointed  a  member  of  the  council.  The  three  additional 
members  were  sent  out  from  England;  namely,  General 
Clavering,  Colonel  Monson,  and  Mr.  Philip  Francis. 

At  the  same  time  a  Supreme  Court  of  judicature  was 
created  at  Calcutta,  consisting  of  a  chief  justice  and  three 


BRITISH    INDIA  413 

puisne  judges,  who  were  sent  out  from  England  by  the 
direct  appointment  of  the  Crown.1 

The  three  new  members  of  council  from  England  were 
strongly  prejudiced  against  the  Company's  government. 
They  soon  formed  a  united  opposition  to  Hastings;  but  the 
life  and  soul  of  the  opposition  was  Philip  Francis. 

This  extraordinary  man  was  born  in  1740,  and  was  con- 
sequently only  thirty-four  years  of  age  on  his  arrival  in  In- 
dia; but  he  had  spent  some  years  in  the  War  Office  in 
London,  and  was  known  to  the  initiated  as  a  man  of  large 
capacity.  Of  late  years  it  has  been  discovered  that  Francis 
was  the  author  of  the  "Letters  of  Junius. "  The  Letters  had 
created  a  great  sensation  in  London  by  their  lofty  assump- 
tion of  patriotism,  and  their  bitter  invectives  against  men  in 
power;  and  it  is  shrewdly  suspected  that  the  secret  of  the 
authorship  was  known  to  the  British  ministers,  and  that 
Philip  Francis  was  sent  to  India  on  a  salary  of  ten  thou- 
sand a  year  to  get  him  out  of  the  way.  Macaulay  describes 
Francis  as  capable  of  patriotism  and  magnanimity,  and  free 
from  vices  of  a  sordid  kind ;  but  otherwise  vindictive,  arro- 
gant, and  insolent;  confounding  his  antipathies  with  his 
duties,  and  mistaking  his  malevolence  for  public  virtue.* 

The  new  triumvirate  landed  at  Calcutta  in  October,  1774; 
their  first  action  was  to  condemn  the  Rohilla  war  and  to  call 
for  the  correspondence  between  Hastings  and  Middleton. 
Had  Hastings  produced  those  papers  he  would  have  silenced 
all  suspicion ;  but  he  refused,  on  the  ground  that  much  of 
the  correspondence  referred  to  private  matters,  and  he  would 
only  agree  to  produce  extracts.  From  that  hour  Philip 
Francis  seems  to  have  believed  that  Hastings  had  been 
bribed  by  the  Nawab  Vizier. 

1  A  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  the  Supreme  Court  at  Calcutta,  with 
judges  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  the  two  Courts  of  Appeal  established  by 
Warren  Hastings,  which  were  known  down  to  1861  as  the  Sudder  or  Company's 
Courts.  (See  ante,  p.  351.)  Subsequently  similar  courts  were  created  at  Madras 
and  Bombay.  In  1861  the  Sudder  and  Supreme  Courts  were  amalgamated  at 
each  of  the  three  Presidencies  into  what  is  at  present  known  as  the  High  Court. 

*  This  opinion  is  worth  bearing  in  mind,  as  it  is  confirmed  by  Mr.  Herman 
Merivale,  editor  of  the  Correspondence  and  Journals  of  Francis. 


414  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

Philip  Francis  next  moved  that  Middleton  should  be  re- 
called to  Calcutta,  and  that  a  Mr.  Bristow  should  be  sent  as 
Resident  to  Lucknow.  This  measure  was  carried  out  in  the 
teeth  of  Hastings  and  Barwell  by  a  majority  of  three  votes 
against  two.  Hastings  saw  that  his  authority  was  set  aside ; 
and  for  many  months  Philip  Francis  was  supreme  in  the  Cal- 
cutta council,  being  supported  by  the  votes  of  General  Clav- 
ering  and  Colonel  Monson. 

The  ability  of  Philip  Francis  is  beyond  all  question.  He 
had  scarcely  been  four  months  in  the  country  when  he  sent 
to  England 'a  scheme  for  the  government  of  Bengal,  which 
corresponded  very  much  to  what  has  been  since  carried  out 
in  India.  The  King  of  Great  Britain  was  to  be  the  only 
sovereign  in  Bengal.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  Supreme  Court 
was  to  extend  over  all  the  natives  in  the  Bengal  provinces. 
The  English  language  was  to  be  used  hi  all  affairs  of  govern- 
ment. The  lands  were  to  be  granted  to  the  Zemindars,  and 
in  many  cases  to  the  Ryots,  in  perpetuity  or  for  life,  with 
fixed  rents,  and  fixed  fines  on  the  renewal  of  leases. 

But  Philip  Francis  had  a  fixed  purpose  which  destroyed 
all  his  usefulness ;  namely,  to  ruin  Hastings  and  succeed  him 
as  Governor-General.  Right  or  wrong,  he  opposed  Hastings 
hi  everything. 

In  1775  the  Nawab  Vizier  died — the  once  famous  Shuja- 
ud-daula.  He  was  succeeded  on  the  throne  of  Oude  by  his 
son,  Asof-ud-daula.  This  event  opened  up  new  troubles  for 
Hastings.  He  proposed  that  the  treaty  relations  which  had 
been  formed  with  the  father  should  continue  to  be  binding 
on  the  son.  Francis  opposed  this  view,  and  was  anxious  to 
make  better  terms.  He  insisted  that  the  new  Nawab  Vizier 
should  cede  the  suzerainty  of  Benares  to  the  Company,  and 
pay  a  larger  monthly  allowance  for  the  services  of  the  Com- 
pany's brigade,  which  had  been  maintained  by  the  Nawab 
Vizier  within  his  own  dominions  ever  since  the  Rohilla  war. 

The  cession  of  the  suzerainty  of  Benares  is  of  some  im- 
portance. It  was  the  only  territory  acquired  by  the  Bengal 
government  during  the  administration  of  Warren  Hastings; 


BRITISH    INDIA  415 

and  the  acquisition  was  not  the  act  of  Warren  Hastings,  but 
of  Philip  Francis.  Lord  Clive  had  laid  down  the  Carum- 
nassa  as  the  boundary  of  British  territory,  and  that  boun- 
dary would  have  been  maintained  down  to  the  time  of  Lord 
Wellesley  but  for  the  interference  of  Philip  Francis. 

The  next  dispute  related  to  the  treasures  of  the  deceased 
Nawab  Vizier.  Under  Oriental  rule  there  is  often  no  dis- 
tinction between  the  revenues  of  the  state  and  the  private 
property  of  the  ruler.  Shuja-ud-daula  had  left  accumulated 
hoards  of  surplus  revenue  amounting  to  two  or  three  millions 
sterling.  His  son  and  successor,  Asof-ud-daula,  declared  that 
the  money  was  state  property.  But  the  mother  and  grand- 
mother of  the  new  Nawab  Vizier,  who  were  popularly  known 
as  the  two  Begums,  claimed  the  whole  of  this  large  sum  on 
the  ground  that  it  had  been  made  over  to  them  as  his  private 
property. 

The  claim  of  the  Begums  was  preposterous.  The  de- 
ceased Nawab  Vizier  could  never  have  been  justified  in 
making  over  two  millions  sterling  of  state  revenue  to  a 
couple  of  old  ladies  shut  up  in  a  zenana,  while  leaving  his 
son  and  successor  with  an  empty  treasury,  to  defray  the 
large  debts  due  to  the  East  India  Company. 

The  money  question,  however,  between  the  new  Nawab 
Vizier  and  the  two  Begums  was  one  in  which  the  English 
government  ought  not  to  have  interfered.  Such  was  the 
opinion  of  Warren  Hastings,  but  such  was  not  the  opinion 
of  Philip  Francis.  Mr.  Bristow,  the  new  Resident  who  had 
been  sent  to  Lucknow  at  the  instance  of  Philip  Francis,  in- 
terfered in  behalf  of  the  two  Begums;  and  the  two  ladies 
paid  some  quarter  of  a  million  sterling  to  the  Resident,  on 
account  of  the  debt  due  by  the  Oude  government  to  the  East 
India  Company,  and  were  then  confirmed  in  the  possession 
of  the  remainder.  Hastings  condemned  the  interference  of 
the  Resident,  but  Francis  and  his  colleagues  sanctioned  all 
that  had  been  done. 

By  this  time  it  was  widely  known  among  the  natives  that 
Hastings  had  lost  his  authority ;  that  Francis  was  the  rising 


416  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

man;  and  that  he  and  his  two  colleagues,  Clavering  and 
Monson,  were  giving  ready  ear  to  all  charges  brought  against 
the  Governor-General.  A  host  of  informers  soon  appeared 
with  accusations  of  bribery  and  corruption,  which  were  greed- 
ily swallowed  by  the  triumvirate.  It  is  impossible  to  say 
that  the  whole  were  either  true  or  untrue.  But  two  distinct 
charges  were  brought  against  Hastings  by  a  man  named 
Nund-komar  which  deserve  consideration.  Hastings  had 
appointed  a  widow  of  Mir  Jafir,  named  Muni  Begum,  to 
manage  the  household  of  the  Nawab  Nazim.  He  had  also 
appointed  a  son  of  this  very  Nund-komar  to  act  conjointly 
with  Muni  Begum.  Hastings  was  accused  by  Nund-komar 
of  receiving  a  bribe  of  thirty-five  thousand  pounds  sterling 
in  return  for  these  appointments.  He  was  also  accused  by 
the  same  man  of  having  received  a  hundred  thousand  pounds 
to  connive  at  the  embezzlements  of  Muhammad  Reza  Khan. 

The  character  of  Nund-komar  was  utterly  bad.  He  was 
a  high-caste  Brahman,  but  he  was  known  to  have  forged 
seals  and  signatures,  and  to  have  carried  on  a  treasonous 
correspondence  with  Shah  Alam  and  the  French  governor 
of  Pondicherry.  But  the  two  charges  of  bribery  involved 
an  aggregate  of  a  hundred  and  thirty-five  thousand  pounds 
sterling,  and  might  have  been  disproved  by  the  production  of 
accounts.  Hastings,  however,  preferred  to  stand  on  his  dig- 
nity. He  refused  to  answer  charges  brought  by  such  a 
miscreant,  or  to  be  tried  like  a  criminal  by  his  own  council. 
Francis  persisted  in  giving  his  full  belief  to  Nund-komar, 
and  he  voted  that  the  charges  were  proved. 

Hastings,  in  self-defence,  brought  an  action  against  Nund- 
komar,  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  judicature  at  Calcutta,  for 
conspiracy.  The  judges  admitted  the  charge,  but  suffered 
Nund-komar  to  go  out  on  bail.  Six  weeks  afterward  Nund- 
komar  was  arrested  for  forgery,  tried  by  the  new  chief  jus- 
tice, Sir  Elijah  Impey,  convicted  by  a  jury  of  Englishmen, 
condemned  to  be  hanged,  and  finally  executed  at  Calcutta  in 
the  presence  of  a  large  multitude. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Nund-komar  committed  forgery; 


BRITISH    INDIA  417 

but  it  is  questionable  whether  he  would  have  been  arrested 
on  the  charge  if  he  had  not  brought  accusations  against 
Hastings.  Again,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Nund-komar  had 
committed  offences  worthy  of  death ;  but  it  is  questionable 
whether  he  ought  to  have  been  hanged  for  forgery.  Such 
a  punishment  for  such  an  offence  was  unknown  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Bengal.  The  execution  of  Nund-komar  has  therefore 
been  regarded  by  many  as  a  judicial  murder,  and  the  guilt 
has  been  equally  distributed  between  W-arren  Hastings  and 
Elijah  Impey. 

The  execution  of  Nund-komar  filled  Calcutta  with  terror. 
From  that  time  forth  not  a  single  native  dared  to  whisper 
a  charge  against  Hastings.  Even  Francis  was  paralyzed. 
Possibly  he  discovered,  when  it  was  too  late,  that  he  had 
been  more  or  less  the  dupe  of  Nund-komar.  Subsequently, 
when  a  petition  in  the  name  of  the  dead  man  passed  through 
the  council,  it  was  Francis  who  moved  that  it  should  be 
burned  by  the  common  hangman. 

Meanwhile  the  relations  between  the  English  settlement 
at  Bombay  and  the  Peishwa  of  the  Mahrattas  at  Poona  were 
beginning  to  alarm  the  Governor-General  and  council  at  Cal- 
cutta. In  order,  however,  to  take  in  clearly  the  current  of 
events  it  will  be  necessary  to  review  the  progress  of  Mah- 
ratta  affairs. 

Mahdu  Rao,  fourth  Peishwa,  died  in  November,  1772, 
aged  twenty-eight.  He  left  no  son,  and  his  widow  perished 
on  his  funeral  pile.  His  younger  brother,  Narain  Rao,  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne  at  Poona  as  fifth  Peishwa;  and  went 
to  Satara  to  receive  the  dress  of  investiture  from  the  puppet 
Maharaja.  The  uncle,  Rughonath  Rao,  was  released  from 
prison,  and  reappointed  guardian. 

All  the  jarring  elements  which  had  been  at  work  during 
the  reign  of  Mahdu  Rao  broke  out  afresh  under  his  successor. 
The  natural  jealousy  between  the  uncle  and  the  nephew  was 
inflamed  to  fever  heat  by  the  wife  of  the  one  and  the  mother 
of  the  other.  The  discord  was  aggravated  by  a  secret  rivalry 
between  two  Brahman  ministers.  The  elder,  Sakaram  Bapu, 


418  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

supported  the  pretensions  of  the  uncle  guardian,  Rughonath 
Rao ;  while  the  younger  Brahman,  destined  to  become  famous 
under  the  name  of  Nana  Farnavese,  was  plotting  his  own 
advancement  by  courting  the  favor  of  the  young  Peishwa. 

In  April,  1773,  the  uncle  guardian  was  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned in  the  palace  of  Poona,  where  the  young  Peishwa 
was  residing.  In  the  following  August  Narain  Rao  was 
murdered.  To  this  day  the  story  is  a  mystery.  During  the 
morning  of  the  30th  of  August,  the  Peishwa's  troops  were 
clamoring  at  the  palace  for  arrears  of  pay.  The  young 
Peishwa  ordered  the  palace  to  be  secured,  and  retired  to 
his  afternoon  siesta.  His  orders  were  neglected ;  the  clamor 
increased ;  the  troops,  led  on  by  two  conspirators,  broke  into 
the  palace.  The  young  Peishwa  started  from  his  slumbers, 
and  ran  to  his  uncle's  apartments  and  prayed  for  protection. 
Rughonath  Rao  interfered,  but  the  conspirators  declared  they 
had  gone  too  far,  and  slaughtered  Narain  Rao  on  the  spot. 
By  this  time  the  palace  was  surrounded  by  troops;  armed 
men  thronged  the  streets;  the  shops  were  shut  throughout 
the  city;  and  the  inhabitants  of  Poona  ran  to  and  fro  in 
consternation.  At  last  the  news  transpired  that  Narain  Rao 
was  murdered,  but  nothing  was  known  of  the  murderers.1 

Rughonath  Rao  was  unquestionably  implicated.  Ram 
Shastri  investigated  the  case,  and  charged  him  with  hav- 
ing set  on  two  conspirators  to  assassinate  his  nephew.  Ru- 
ghonath Rao  admitted  having  authorized  the  arrest  of  his 
nephew,  but  denied  having  ordered  the  murder.  Ram  Sha- 
stri recovered  the  original  document,  and  discovered  that 
the  word  signifying  "to  seize"  had  been  changed  into  the 
word  signifying  "to  kill."  Henceforth  it  was  the  general 
belief  that  the  alteration  was  made  by  Ananda  Bai,  the 
unscrupulous  wife  of  Rughonath  Rao.  The  result  was  that 
Rughonath  Rao  ascended  the  throne  of  Poona  as  the  sue* 
cessor  to  his  murdered  nephew,  and  began  to  reign  as  sixth 


1  Here,  as  elsewhere  in  dealing  with  the  Mahrattas,  the  details  are  given  on 
the  authority  of  Grant  Duff's  Mahratta  history. 


BRITISH    INDIA  419 

Peishwa;  but  Ram  Shastri  retired  from  Poona,  refusing  all 
employment  under  the  new  regime.1 

The  distractions  at  Poona  encouraged  Nizam  Ali  to  take 
the  field  from  Hyderabad.  But  the  Bhonsla  of  Berar  came 
to  the  help  of  the  new  Peishwa;2  and  Nizam  Ali  was  de- 
feated, and  compelled  to  cede  territory  yielding  a  yearly 
revenue  of  about  two  hundred  thousand  pounds.  But  Nizam 
Ali  once  again  worked  on  the  weakness  of  Rughonath  Rao ; 
paid  him  a  visit,  praised  his  wisdom,  and  made  over  his  seal 
of  state,  telling  him  to  take  as  much  territory  as  he  wanted. 
Rughonath  Rao  was  cajoled  and  befooled.  Not  to  be  out- 
done in  generosity,  he  actually  gave  back  the  ceded  territory 
to  Nizam  Ali;  a  senseless  act  of  generosity  which  proved 
fatal  to  his  authority;  for  had  he  distributed  the  territory 
judiciously  among  the  Mahratta  chiefs  he  would  have  bound 
them  closely  to  his  cause. 

Rughonath  Rao  was  indeed  born  to  be  outwitted.  He 
marched  an  army  toward  the  south  to  attack  Hyder  Ali; 
and  was  suddenly  astonished  by  the  news  of  a  revolution 
at  Poona.  During  his  absence  from  the  capital  the  widow 
of  Narain  Rao  gave  birth  to  a  son.  The  infant  was  placed 
upon  the  throne,  and  a  council  of  regency  was  formed  at 
Poona;  and  Rughonath  Rao  was  shut  out  from  the  capital. 
Accordingly  the  baffled  Peishwa  proceeded  northward  into 
Malwa  and  Guzerat  to  raise  forces  for  the  destruction  of  the 
council  of  regency,  and  the  recovery  of  the  throne  of  Poona, 
by  force  of  arms.3 

1  Rughonath  Rao,  sixth  Peishwa,  plays  an  important  part  in  the  after  rela- 
tions of  the  English  with  the  Mahrattas.     He  is  frequently  mentioned  in  the 
records  of  the  eighteenth  century  under  the  name  of  Ragoba,  but  Rughonath 
Rao  is  his  correct  name.     He  was  the  father  of  Baji  Rao,  the  eighth  Peishwa  and 
last  of  the  dynasty,  who  was  dethroned  in  1818,  and  died  in  1851,  leaving  the 
infamous  Nana  Sahib  as  his  adopted  son. 

2  Janoji   Bhonsla  died  in  1773,  leaving  no  natural  kin.     He  had  a  brother 
named  Mudaji  Bhonsla ;  and  he  left  the  Raj  of  Berar  to  the  son  of  Mudaji  Bhonsla, 
named  Rughuji  Bhonsla.     The  nephew,  however,  was  placed  urder  the  guar- 
dianship of  his  own  father.     The  result  was  that  Mudaji  Bhonsla,  the  father, 
became  the  real  ruler  of  Berar.     Mudaji  Bhonsla  helped  Rughonath  Rao  in  order 
to  obtain  the  confirmation  of  the  Peishwa  to  his  authority. 

z  It  would  be  tedious  and  needless  to  trace  the  movements  of  the  greater 
Mahratta  feudatories  during  the  struggle  between  Rughonath  Rao  and  the  coun- 


420  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

At  this  crisis  Rughonath  Rao  applied  to  Bombay  for 
succor.  He  engaged  to  cede  Salsette  and  Bassein  to  the 
English  government,  and  to  assign  the  territory  and  revenue 
of  Baroche  toward  the  expenses  of  the  war.  At  this  time 
there  was  no  evidence  that  Rughonath  Rao  was  a  murderer; 
indeed  it  was  generally  believed  that  the  infant  son  of  the 
deceased  Narain  Rao  was  a  supposititious  child. 

Accordingly,  in  1775,  the  Bombay  government  concluded 
a  treaty  with  Rughonath  Rao  at  Surat,  and  then  took  pos- 
session of  Salsette  and  Bassein,  and  began  operations  for 
restoring  Rughonath  Rao  to  the  throne  at  Poona.  The 
army  of  the  Mahratta  regency  was  utterly  defeated  by  the 
new  allies,  and  there  was  every  prospect  of  brilliant  success, 
when  the  war  was  suddenly  brought  to  a  close  by  orders 
from  Calcutta. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Warren  Hastings  had  been 
appointed  Governor-General,  and  that  his  government  had 
been  invested  with  authority  over  Madras  and  Bombay. 
Both  he  and  his  council  condemned  the.  Mahratta  war  as 
impolitic,  dangerous,  unauthorized,  and  unjust.  As,  how- 
ever, war  had  begun,  Hastings  wished  to  push  it  to  a  speedy 
conclusion ;  but  Francis  and  his  supporters  would  not  listen 
to  any  such  compromise.  The  Bombay  government  was 
ordered  to  withdraw  its  forces  and  cease  from  all  further 
hostilities;  and  Colonel  Upton  was  sent  from  Calcutta  to 
Poona  as  an  agent  of  the  supreme  government  of  Bengal 
to  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  Mahratta  council  of  regency, 
but  to  insist  on  the  cession  of  Salsette  and  Bassein  and  the 
territory  of  Baroche  to  the  Company. 

The  Mahratta  council  of  regency  at  Poona  had  been 
much  cast  down  by  the  loss  of  Salsette  and  Bassein ;  and 
they  had  been  still  more  disheartened  by  the  successes  of 
the  Bombay  army.  Accordingly  they  were  delighted  at  the 

oil  of  regency.  Each  feudatory  was  guided  solely  by  considerations  of  his  own 
individual  interest,  and  wavered  between  the  two,  or  deserted  the  one  for  the 
other,  without  scruple  or  shame.  Indeed  the  policy  of  Mahratta  chiefs  in  gen- 
eral has  been  to  trim  between  conflicting  parties  until  the  struggle  is  drawing  to 
a  close,  and  then  to  declare  for  the  winning  side. 


BRITISH    JNDIA 

clashing  between  Bengal  and  Bombay.  They  extolled  the 
great  governor  of  Calcutta,  who  had  ordered  Bombay  to 
put  an  end  to  the  war;  but  they  refused  to  cede  either  Sal- 
sette  and  Bassein,  or  the  territory  of  Baroche.  They  urged, 
and  with  a  show  of  reason,  that  as  the  Bengal  government 
had  justly  condemned  the  war,  the  English  could  not  intend 
to  profit  by  its  aggression.  At  last  they  took  alarm  at  some 
preparations  for  a  renewal  of  the  war,  and  agreed  to  cede 
Salsette,  but  110  more.  In  1776  a  treaty  was  concluded  at 
Purundhur  on  this  basis,  to  the  mortification  of  Warren 
Hastings  and  the  Bombay  government. 

Subsequently  despatches  were  received  from  the  Directors 
approving  the  treaty  of  Surat,  but  condemning  the  treaty  of 
Purundhur.  By  this  time  Hastings  was  no  longer  in  a  mi- 
nority. Colonel  Monson  died  soon  after  the  treaty  of  Pu- 
rundhur, and  Hastings  was  enabled  to  carry  his  measures 
by  a  casting  vote. 

Peace  with  the  Mahrattas  was  impossible.  England  and 
France  were  on  the  eve  of  a  war  on  account  of  the  help  fur- 
nished by  the  French  to  the  American  colonies.  A  French 
adventurer,  named  St.  Lubin,  arrived  at  Poona  with  presents 
from  the  King  of  France,  and  asserted  that  a  French  force 
was  following  him  to  drive  the  English  out  of  India.  The 
leading  member  of  the  council  of  regency,  named  Nana 
Farnavese,  showed  great  attention  to  St.  Lubin,  granted 
him  the  port  of  Chaul,  near  Bombay,  and  was  evidently 
disposed  to  hostilities  with  the  English. 

Meanwhile  there  were  more  plottings  and  intrigues  in  the 
council  of  regency.  Sakaram  Bapu,  the  elder  Brahman, 
Was  anxious  for  the  return  of  Rughonath  Rao,  and  jealous 
of  Nana  Farnavese.  Sindia  and  Holkar  were  beginning 
that  baleful  interference  in  the  affairs  of  Poona  which  ulti- 
mately brought  about  the  destruction  of  the  Peishwa.1 

1  Sindia  and  Holkar  divided  between  them  the  greater  part  of  Malwa  between 
the  Nerbudda  and  Chambal  rivers;  but  their  territories  were  so  intermixed  and 
confused  that  it  was  impossible  in  former  times  to  draw  a  line  of  boundary  be- 
tween the  two.  They  are  best  distinguished  by  their  later  capitals,  namely, 
Gwalior  the  capital  of  Sindia,  and  Indore  the  capital  of  Holkar. 


422  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

Mahadaji  Sindia  was  absent  from  Poona,  pursuing  his  am- 
bitious designs  in  Hindustan.  He  owed  a  grudge  against 
Rughonath  Rao,  on  account  of  the  opposition  to  his  succes- 
sion to  the  family  Jaghir ;  but  he  sought  to  trim  between  the 
contending  factions  until  he  could  appear  in  person  at  Poona. 
Tukaji  Holkar  joined  the  party  of  Sakaram  Bapu,  and  plotted 
against  Mahadaji  Sindia.  Nana  Farnavese  was  obliged  to 
succumb  to  his  rivals.  A  party  was  formed  at  Poona  for 
the  restoration  of  Rughonath  Rao ;  and  letters  were  sent  to 
Bombay,  signed  by  Sakaram  Bapu,  Tukaji  Holkar,  and 
others  of  the  party,  inviting  the  English  to  conduct  Rugho- 
nath Rao  to  Poona,  and  place  him  once  more  on  the  throne 
of  the  Peishwa.1 

"Warren  Hastings  resolved  on  war,  nominally  for  the 
restoration  of  Rughonath  Rao,  but  in  reality  for  the  pur- 
pose of  defeating  the  designs  of  the  French.  A  force  under 
Colonel  Goddard  was  sent  from  Bengal  overland  through 
Bundelkund  and  Malwa  to  the  Mahratta  country.  At  the 
same  time  a  force  was  sent  from  Bombay  to  Poona  to  con- 
duct Rughonath  Rao  to  the  Mahratta  capital. 

The  Bombay  expedition  marched  toward  Poona  in  1778, 
but  none  of  the  Mahratta  chiefs  came  out  to  join  Rughonath 
Rao.  There  had  been  another  revolution  in  the  Mahratta 
court.  Mahadaji  Sindia  had  arrived  at  Poona,  and  violently 
interfered  in  behalf  of  Nana  Farnavese.  Sakaram  Bapu 
fell  into  the  clutches  of  his  rival,  and  ultimately  perished 
miserably.  Tukaji  Holkar  fled  from  Poona  to  Indore.  All 
the  other  men  who  had  invited  Rughonath  Rao  were  thrown 
into  prison.  The  movement  at  Poona  in  behalf  of  Rugho- 
nath Rao  died  out  with  the  fall  of  his  supporters;  and  the 
ruling  party  were  prepared  to  resist  any  attempt  which  might 


1  Nana  Farnavese  was  the  paramour  of  the  widow  of  Narain  Rao  Peishwa, 
who  was  murdered  by  Rughonath  Rao.  He  was  thus  personally  interested  in 
maintaining  the  infant  Mahdu  Narain  Rao  on  the  throne  of  Poona,  under  the 
regency  of  the  Rani  mother.  Subsequently  the  Rani  mother  died,  and  Nana 
Farnavese  lost  his  influence,  while  his  rivals  in  the  regency  intrigued  for  the 
restoration  of  Rughonath  Rao  to  the  throne  at  Poona. 


BRITISH   INDIA  423 

be  made  to  restore  Rughonath  Rao  to  the  throne  of  the 

Peishwa. 

The  Bombay  forces  advanced  within  eighteen  miles  of 
Poona,  and  then  were  so  alarmed  at  the  rumors  which 
reached  them  on  all  sides,  that  they  turned  back  toward 
Bombay.  They  were  attacked  in  their  retreat  by  a  large 
Mahratta  army  under  Mahadaji  Sindia.  The  enemy  was 
repulsed  by  Captain  Hartley,  a  gallant  officer  who  was 
famous  in  his  day ;  but  the  troops  lost  heart,  and  Hartley's 
superior  officer  was  bewildered  and  wanted  to  come  to  terms 
with  the  Mahrattas.  Captain  Hartley  warmly  opposed  the 
measure,  and  pointed  out  a  safe  way  of  retreat,  but  was 
overruled.  Terms  were  offered;  Nana  Farnavese  was  in 
the  Mahratta  camp,  and  insisted  on  the  surrender  of  Rugho- 
nath  Rao.  Mahadaji  Sindia  was  more  amenable  to  reason. 
The  result  was  that  Rughonath  Rao  threw  himself  on  the 
protection  of  Sindia,  while  the  English  agreed  to  restore 
Salsette  and  to  countermand  the  march  of  Colonel  Goddard. 
This  unhappy  business  is  known  in  history  as  the  convention 
of  Wurgaum. 

Colonel  Goddard  had  reached  Burhanpur  on  the  Ner- 
budda  river,  when  he  was  stopped  by  the  convention  of 
Wurgaum,  and  marched  northward  to  Surat.  By  this  tune, 
however,  the  governments  of  Bengal  and  Bombay  had  re- 
pudiated the  convention;  and  as  war  annihilates  treaties, 
preparations  were  being  made  for  war.  Indeed,  war  against 
France  had  already  been  declared,  and  war  against  the 
Mahrattas  was  found  to  be  inevitable. 

The  hostilities  which  followed  are  known  as  the  first 
Mahratta  war;  they  lasted  from  1779  to  1782.  From  first 
to  last  the  operations  were  directed  by  Warren  Hastings, 
who  might  have  been  called  the  Chatham  of  India,  if  like 
Chatham  he  had  been  free  from  suspicions  of  corruption. 
The  march  of  Goddard  from  Bengal  to  Burhanpur  was  con- 
demned at  the  time  as  a  frantic  exploit;  but  the  marches  of 
Ala-ud-din  and  Sivaji  were  equally  frantic,  and  so  was  the 
defence  of  Arcot  and  battle  of  Plassy. 


424  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

The  operations  of  the  first  Mahratta  war  were  extended 
from  Bombay  into  Guzerat,  and  from  Bengal  into  the  heart 
of  Hindustan.  Colonel  Goddard  entered  Guzerat,  and  took 
possession  of  a  large  territory  belonging  to  the  Peishwa. 
Subsequently  he  was  more  or  less  surrounded  by  dense  clouds 
of  Mahratta  horse,  under  Mahadaji  Sindia  and  Tukaji 
Holkar;  and  he  could  neither  leave  Guzerat  nor  bring  the 
enemy  to  a  decisive  action.  At  this  crisis  Warren  Hastings 
made  a  splendid  diversion  from  the  side  of  Bengal.  He  sent 
Captain  Popham  at  the  head  of  two  thousand  four  hundred 
sepoys,  and  a  small  detachment  of  artillery,  to  make  his 
way  through  Hindustan  toward  Malwa.  With  this  little 
army  Captain  Popham  scattered  a  Mahratta  force  that  was 
levying  contributions,  and,  after  some  other  successes,  elec- 
trified half  India  by  the  capture  of  Gwalior,  one  of  the 
strongest  fortresses  in  Hindustan. 

The  loss  of  Gwalior  compelled  Mahadaji  Sindia  to  return 
to  Malwa  for  the  defence  of  his  own  territories.  He  still, 
however,  avoided  a  general  action,  and  after  some  delay 
made  overtures  of  peace,  which  ended  in  his  engaging  to 
remain  neutral  on  condition  that  certain  conquered  districts 
on  the  Jumna  were  restored  to  him.  It  will  be  seen  here- 
after that  this  neutrality  on  the  part  of  Mahadaji  Sindia 
added  greatly  to  his  influence  during  the  later  negotiations 
for  a  general  peace  with  all  the  Mahratta  powers. 

While  the  Mahratta  war  was  raging,  the  territory  ac- 
quired in  Guzerat  was  placed  under  the  charge  of  Mr. 
Forbes,  a  civilian  of  Bombay.  The  inhabitants,  who  had 
been  hitherto  accustomed  to  the  exactions  of  the  Moghuls, 
and  still  more  grinding  cruelty  and  rapacity  of  the  Mahrat- 
tas,  hailed  the  change  in  the  administration  as  the  greatest 
of  earthly  blessings.  Forbes  was  a  mild  and  amiable  man, 
to  whom  cruelty  was  impossible  and  corruption  as  revolting 
as  crime.  His  jurisdiction  extended  over  five  large  towns 
and  a  hundred  and  fifty  villages.  He  gratified  Brahmans 
and  other  Hindus  by  prohibiting  his  European  soldiers  from 
molesting  monkeys,  pelicans,  cranes,  and  water-fowl;  and 


BRITISH   INDIA  425 

above  all  by  forbidding  the  slaughter  of -cows,  except  in  a 
private  manner.  He  administered  justice  with  the  help  of 
four  Brahmans  and  four  Muhammadans,  besides  native 
merchants  and  heads  of  castes.  Each  case  was  tried  by  a 
punchayet,  or  jury  of  five  natives ;  two  being  chosen  by  the 
plaintiff,  two  by  the  defendant,  and  one  by  himself  as  judge. 
In  some  cases,  but  with  great  reluctance,  he  allowed  of  trials 
by  ordeal.  Such  a  man  seems  to  have  approached  the  Hindu 
ideal  of  a  perfect  ruler. 

Meanwhile,  events  of  importance  were  transpiring  at 
Calcutta.  Hastings  had  expressed  through  a  friend  in  Eng- 
land some  intention  of  resigning  the  government;  and  the 
Directors  had  taken  him  at  his  word  and  appointed  General 
Clavering  to  succeed  him  as  Governor-General.  When  or- 
ders reached  Calcutta,  Hastings  had  regained  his  ascendency 
in  council,  and  withdrew  his  resignation.  A  quarrel  ensued 
which  caused  the  utmost  excitement.  Clavering  took  his 
seat  as  Governor-General  in  one  room  with  Francis,. while 
Hastings  took  his  seat  in  another  room  with  Barwell.  Clav- 
ering sent  for  the  keys  of  Fort  William,  but  Hastings  had 
already  brought  the  military  authorities  to  obey  no  orders 
but  his  own.  In  this  extremity  the  dispute  was  referred  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  judicature  at  Calcutta,  and  decided 
in  favor  of  Hastings.  Clavering  died  shortly  afterward, 
and  a  Mr.  Wheler  came  out  to  India  as  member  of  council 
and  supported  Francis.  But  Hastings  was  still  supported 
by  Barwell,  and  secured  a  majority  by  means  of  his  casting 
vote. 

About  this  time  it  was  discovered  that  the  five  years' 
leases  of  lands  in  Bengal  and  Behar  had  proved  a  failure. 
Many  Zemindars  and  others  had  taken  lands  beyond  their 
value,  and  were  unable  to  pay  the  rent.  Francis  urged  his 
plan  of  a  permanent  settlement,  and  it  was  sent  to  England 
for  the  consideration  of  the  Court  of  Directors.  Pending  the 
receipt  of  orders  from  England,  the  lands  were  let  on  yearly 

ses. 

In  1780  the  quarrel  between  Hastings  and  Francis  reached 


426  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

a  climax.  Mr.  Barwell,  the  supporter  of  Hastings,  was 
anxious  to  proceed  to  England,  but  would  not  leave  Hast- 
ings to  contend  alone  against  Francis  and  Wheler.  Over- 
tures were  made  to  Francis,  and  a  compromise  was  effected ; 
Hastings  making  some  concessions  to  Francis,  and  Francis 
engaging  not  to  oppose  Hastings  in  the  conduct  of  the  Mah- 
ratta  war.  Barwell  embarked  for  Europe ;  and  then  Francis 
opposed  the  war  as  bitterly  as  ever.  Hastings  declared  that 
he  had  been  betrayed.  Francis  explained  that  he  was  only 
pledged  to  support  the  war  so  long  as  it  was  confined  to  the 
Malabar  coast;  but  that  when  Hastings  extended  it  to  the 
heart  of  Hindustan,  the  obligation  ceased.  The  result  was 
a  duel  in  which  Francis  was  wounded ;  and  the  discomfited 
statesman  left  India  forever,  burning  with  disappointed 
ambition,  and  breathing  the  direst  vengeance  against 
Hastings. 

While  Hastings  was  carrying  on  the  Mahratta  war  from 
Bengal,  the  settlement  of  Madras  was  in  sore  danger.  Mu- 
hammad Ali,  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic,  had  proved  as  useless 
an  ally  to  the  English  at  Madras  as  old  Mir  Jafir  had  been 
to  the  English  in  Bengal.  Muhammad  Ali  had  ceded  a 
territory  to  the  English,  which  was  known  as  the  Com- 
pany's Jaghir;  but  the  revenues  of  the  Jaghir  were  insuffi- 
cient to  pay  for  the  defence  of  the  Carnatic,  threatened  as 
it  was  from  time  to  time  by  one  or  other  of  the  three  great 
powers  of  India — Nizam  Ali,  Hyder  Ali,  and  the  Mahrattas. 

All  this  while  Muhammad  Ali  was  hopelessly  in  debt. 
He  had  ostensibly  borrowed  large  sums  from  English  ser- 
vants of  the  Company,  most  of  which  were  presents  under 
the  name  of  loans,  and  yet  were  charged  with  high  interest. 
Englishmen  in  the  service  of  the  Madras  government,  whose 
means  were  notoriously  small,  and  who  could  never  have 
sent  a  rupee  to  Arcot,  were  nevertheless  put  down  as  credi- 
tors to  the  Nawab,  and  were  thus  bribed  with  both  principal 
and  interest.  In  a  word,  the  Nawab  had  been  lavish  of 
money,  or  of  acknowledgments  of  the  receipt  of  money,  in 
the  hope  of  securing  friends  and  supporters  in  both  India 


BRITISH   INDIA  427 

and  England ;  while  his  revenues,  which  ought  to  have  been 
available  for  the  defence  of  the  Carnatic  against  all  invaders, 
were  pawned  away  to  the  servants  of  the  Company,  in  return 
for  loans  which  were  mostly  nominal. 

In  this  extremity  the  Nawab  had  often  turned  a  wistful 
eye  to  the  Hindu  territory  of  the  Raja  of  Tanjore,  which 
included  the  delta  of  the  Kavari  and  Koleroon,  and  was 
regarded  as  the  granary  of  Southern  India.  He  invaded 
and  ravaged  the  territory  of  Tanjore,  and  called  upon  the 
English  to  help  him  to  crush  the  Raja.  The  Madras  au- 
thorities were  blind  to  all  considerations  excepting  their  own 
immediate  gains;  and  were  consequently  eager  to  put  the 
Nawab  in  possession  of  territories  which  would  enable  him 
to  liquidate  their  supposititious  claims.  In  1773  they  deposed 
the  Raja  and  made  over  his  kingdom  to  the  Nawab. 

The  Court  of  Directors  was  furious  at  this  proceeding. 
Mr.  Wynch,  the  Governor  of  Madras,  was  turned  out  of  the 
service.  Lord  Pigot  was  sent  out  as  Governor  in  his  room, 
with  orders  to  restore  the  Raja  to  his  kingdom.  The  Nawab 
is  said  to  have  offered  a  large  bribe  to  Lord  Pigot  to  delay 
taking  action;  but  the  money  was  refused.  In  1776  Lord 
Pigot  proceeded  to  Tanjore  and  restored  the  Raja  to  his 
throne  and  territories. 

A  Mr.  Paul  Benfield  then  appeared  upon  the  scene. 
This  man  had  been  a  servant  of  the  Company  on  a  salary 
of  three  hundred  rupees  a  month,  but  had  subsequently 
entered  the  service  of  the  Nawab.  Benfield  put  forward 
claims  on  the  Nawab  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  ster- 
ling, for  which  the  Nawab  had  given  him  an  assignment  on 
the  revenues  and  standing  crops  of  Tanjore.  Benfield  pro- 
duced no  vouchers,  but  urged  that  the  Nawab  would  ac- 
knowledge the  debt.  It  was  obvious  that  the  whole  affair 
was  a  sham,  got  up  with  the  connivance  of  the  Nawab  for 
diverting  the  revenues  of  the  Tanjore  Raja  to  the  payment 
of  the  Nawab's  creditors. 

The  members  of  Lord  Pigot's  council  were  swayed  by 
conflicting  motives.  The  demand  of  Benfield  was  so  pre- 


428  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

posterous  that  in  the  first  instance  they  could  not  avoid 
rejecting  it.  But  they  subsequently  discovered  that  by  re- 
jecting his  claims  they  were  imperilling  their  own.  Accord- 
ingly they  rescinded  their  vote,  and  declared  that  the  assign- 
ments to  Benfield  of  the  revenue  and  crops  of  Tanjore  were 
valid. 

Lord  Pigot  in  his  wrath  suspended  two  members  of  council 
on  his  own  authority,  and  arrested  the  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Madras  army.  In  return  he  was  himself  suddenly 
arrested  by  the  opposition  members  of  the  Madras  council, 
and  placed  in  confinement.  He  died  in  May,  1777,  eight 
months  after  his  arrest,  and  one  month  before  the  orders  for 
his  release  were  received  from  the  Court  of  Directors. 

In  1778,  the  same  year  that  wars  were  beginning  against 
France  and  the  Mahrattas,  a  Bengal  civilian,  named  Sir 
Thomas  Rumbold,  was  appointed  Governor  of  -Madras.  He 
was  a  shrewd  man  of  business,  and  possibly  an  able  admin- 
istrator; but  either  he  knew  nothing  of  the  dangers  which 
threatened  Madras,  or  else  he  wilfully  shut  his  eyes  to  the 
actual  state  of  affairs. 

By  this  time  Hyder  Ali  had  become  the  most  formidable 
power  in  the  Peninsula.  He  had  strengthened  his  army  by 
absorbing  all  the  floating  European  elements  which  were 
abroad  in  Southern  India:  deserters  from  the  Company's 
army;  runaways  from  the  Company's  ships;  scamps  and 
tramps  from  the  desk  or  warehouse  who  preferred  Oriental 
license  to  duty  and  routine;  discharged  Frenchmen  and 
others  from  the  service  of  the  Nawab  or  the  Nizam;  bodies 
of  native  infantry  or  cavalry,  which  had  been  raised,  trained 
and  disciplined  by  English  officers  to  meet  sudden  emergen- 
cies, and  then  had  been  broken  up,  or  had  broken  themselves 
up,  from  sheer  want  of  pay.  "With  these  nondescript  forces 
Hyder  Ali  had  conquered  all  the  Rajas  and  Poligars  of 
Mysore  and  Malabar,  and  compelled  them  all  to  pay  tribute, 
excepting  the  remote  Rajas  of  Coorg  and  Travancore.  He 
was  still  sore  at  the  failure  of  the  English  at  Madras  to  help 
him  in  his  wars  against  the  Mahrattas;  but  he  saw  with 


BRITISH   INDIA  429 

satisfaction  that  Bengal  and  Bombay  were  engaged  in  hos- 
tilities against  the  Peishwa  at  Poona;  and  he  was  prepared 
to  take  advantage  of  the  distractions  in  the  Mahratta  empire, 
while  planning  secret  designs  against  his  brother  Muham- 
madan  at  Hyderabad.  On  the  whole  he  was  willing  to  be 
at  peace  with  the  English  at  Madras,  provided  that  the 
English  would  leave  him  alone. 

In  1778  the  English  at  Madras  began  the  war  against 
France  by  the  capture  of  Pondicherry.  They  next  threat- 
ened to  capture  the  French  settlement  at  Mahe  on  the  coast 
of  Malabar,  within  the  dominions  of  Hyder  Ah".  Mahe  was 
very  serviceable  to  Hyder  Ali;  he  obtained  European  re- 
cruits and  stores  through  Mahe.  He  declared  that  if  the 
English  attacked  Mahe,  he  would  desolate  the  Carnatic. 
But  the  English  at  Madras  were  bent  on  rooting  the  French 
out  of  the  Peninsula.  An  expedition  was  sent  from  Madras 
against  Mahe,  partly  by  sea  round  Ceylon,  and  partly  by 
land  through  Mysore.  At  this  crisis  news  reached  Madras 
that  the  Bombay  army  had  been  driven  back  from  Poona; 
but  neither  the  disaster  at  Wurgaum,  nor  the  expected  wrath 
of  Hyder  Ali,  could  induce  Rumbold  to  recall  the  expedition, 
and  eventually  Mahe  surrendered  to  the  English  without  a 
blow. 

Meanwhile  Governor  Rumbold  hoped  to  pacify  Hyder 
Ali  by  sending  Swartz,  the  German  missionary,  with  mes- 
sages of  peace  to  Seringapatam.  Swartz  was  well  fitted  for 
the  work.  He  could  speak  Hindustani,  which  was  a  rare 
accomplishment  in  those  days;  and  he  had  already  won 
golden  opinions  among  the  natives  of  Southern  India  by  his 
unassuming  life  and  self-sacrificing  toil.  He  was  unwilling 
to  be  mixed  up  with  political  affairs,  but  undertook  the  mis- 
sion in  the  hope  of  averting  a  war.  He  was  received  by 
Hyder  Ali  with  the  respect  due  to  his  sacred  calling;  but 
unhappily,  during  his  stay  at  Seringapatam,  reports  arrived 
that  English  sepoys  were  marching  through  Mysore  for  the 
capture  of  Mahe.  Hyder  Ali  was  filled  with  wrath  at  this 
violation  of  his  territories.  He  dismissed  the  missionary 


430  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

with  kindness  and  consideration ;  but  Swartz  returned  from 
his  bootless  errand  with  sad  forebodings  of  coming  disaster. 

About  the  same  time  Governor  Rumbold  managed  to 
exasperate  Nizam  Ali.  There  had  long  been  a  soreness 
about  the  English  occupation  of  the  Northern  Circars;  but, 
as  already  stated,  the  English  had  settled  the  quarrel  by 
agreeing  to  pay  Nizam  Ali  a  yearly  rent  of  seventy  thousand 
pounds  for  the  territory  in  question.  The  Circar  or  province 
of  Guntoor  had,  however,  been  assigned  for  life  to  Basalut 
Jung,  the  eldest  brother  of  Nizam  Ali;  and  the  cession  of 
Guntoor  was  accordingly  postponed  until  the  death  of  Ba- 
salut Jung. l  But  the  war  with  France  brought  on  further 
complications.  Basalut  Jung  had  entertained  a  French 
force  for  his  protection  against  Hyder  Ali ;  and  the  English 
compelled  him  to  disband  it.  He  then  made  over  Guntoor 
to  the  English  in  return  for  a  yearly  rent ;  and  the  English 
in  their  turn  transferred  Guntoor  to  Muhammad  Ali,  the 
Nawab  of  the  Carnatic,  on  similar  terms. 

The  wrath  of  Nizam  Ali  was  kindled  at  the  separate 
negotiations  with  Basalut  Jung,  and  especially  at  the  trans- 
fer of  Guntoor  to  Muhammad  Ali.  He  suspected  that  the 
English  were  plotting  with  the  Nawab  to  work  his  destruc- 
tion, and  set  up  Basalut  Jung  on  the  throne  at  Hyderabad. 
In  reality  Guntoor  was  transferred  at  the  instance  of  the 
Nawab's  creditors,  who  wanted  the  revenue  for  the  payment 
of  their  claims.  Nizam  Ali  manifested  his  hostility  by  tak- 
ing into  his  service  the  French  troops  who  had  been  dismissed 
by  Basalut  Jung.  To  make  matters  worse,  Governor  Rum- 
bold  chose  this  particular  moment  for  asking  Nizam  Ali 
to  remit  the  rent  due  for  the  Northern  Circars,  on  the 
ground  that  the  war  against  France  had  emptied  the  Madras 
treasury. 

These  proceedings  were  most  irritating  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Warren  Hastings.  The  war  against  France  was 
already  hampered  by  the  war  with  the  Mahrattas ;  and  now 

1  See  ante,  p.  367,  note. 


BRITISH   INDIA  431 

Madras  had  provoked  this  ill-timed  quarrel  with  Hyder  All 
and  Nizam  Ali.  Accordingly  the  Bengal  government,  as 
the  supreme  authority,  ordered  the  immediate  restoration 
of  Guntoor  to  the  Nizam.  Rumbold,  however,  resented  the 
interference  of  the  Governor- General;  refused  to  restore 
Guntoor;  and  embarked  for  England  in  April,  1780,  igno- 
rant or  regardless  of  the  coming  storm. 

Rumbold  was  succeeded  as  Governor  by  a  Madras  civilian 
named  Whitehill ;  but  there  was  no  improvement  in  the  con- 
duct of  affairs.  The  air  of  Madras  was  reeking  with  scandals 
and  intrigues,  growing  out  of  money  transactions  between 
servants  of  the  Company  and  the  Nawab  of  the  Carnatic. 
Whitehill  was  as  obstinate  as  his  predecessor  in  refusing  to 
restore  Guntoor  to  Nizam  Ali  and  in  neglecting  to  provide 
the  means  of  defence  against  Hyder  Ali.  Meanwhile  corrupt 
Europeans  were  appropriating  the  revenues  of  the  Carnatic 
to  the  payment  of  their  fabricated  claims,  and  amusing  the 
Nawab  Muhammad  Ali  with  hopes  of  being  relieved  from 
all  obligations  to  the  East  India  Company  by  the  direct  inter- 
ference of  the  English  parliament  and  Court  of  St.  James's. 

In  July,  1780,  the  storm  burst  upon  the  Carnatic.  Hyder 
Ali,  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  thousand  men,  poured  through 
the  passes  which  separate  the  tableland  of  Mysore  from  the 
Carnatic  plain.  The  whole  country  was  overrun  by  the  in- 
vaders— eastward  to  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  northward 
to  the  river  Kistna,  and  southward  to  the  Kaveri  and  Kol- 
eroon.1  Villages  were  set  on  fire,  crops  were  destroyed, 
cattle  were  driven  off;  wives  and  daughters  were  shame- 


1  The  army  of  Hyder  Ali  included  20,000  infantry  formed  into  regular  bat- 
talions, and  mostly  commanded  by  Europeans.  His  cavalry  numbered  30,000, 
including  2,000  Abyssinian  horse  who  formed  a  bodyguard,  and  10,000  Carnatic 
horse  well  disciplined.  Half  of  the  Carnatic  horse  had  belonged  to  Nawab  Mu- 
hammad Ali,  and  after  being  trained  by  English  officers,  had  either  deserted  or 
been  disbanded  from  want  of  pay.  Hyder  Ali  also  had  one  hundred  pieces  of 
cannon  managed  either  by  Europeans,  or  by  natives  who  had  been  trained  by 
the  English  for  the  service  of  the  Nawab.  Above  all,  Hyder  Ali  had  a  corpa 
of  Frenchmen  or  other  Europeans  to  the  number  of  four  hundred  men,  under  the 
command  of  a  Monsieur  Lally,  who  had  left  the  service  of  the  Nizam  for  that  of 
the  Mysore  ruler. 


432  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

lessly  carried  away,  and  Brahmans  were  wantonly  cut  down 
and  slaughtered  without  scruple  or  remorse.  Fifty  years 
afterward  the  atrocities  committed  were  still  remembered 
in  remote  villages;  and  persons  who  are  still  living  have 
spoken  to  ancient  crones  who  shuddered  as  they  told  of  the 
avenging  army  of  Hyder  Ali. 

Shortly  before  the  invasion  of  Hyder  Ali,  Hastings  re- 
ceived a  mysterious  communication  from  the  Bhonsla1  Raja 
of  Berar.  The  Raja  informed  Hastings  that  the  three  great 
powers  of  India— Hyder  Ali,  Nizam  Ali,  and  the  Mahrattas 
— were  about  to  make  simultaneous  attacks  on  the  three 
English  settlements  in  Bengal,  Bombay,  and  Madras;  and 
that  Nizam  Ali  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  confederacy.  The 
Berar  Raja  added  that  he  had  received  orders  from  the 
Peishwa's  government  at  Poona  to  send  a  large  army  for 
the  conquest  of  Bengal  and  Behar;  that  he  had  been  obliged 
to  obey  the  orders,  but  had  instructed  his  Mahratta  com- 
manders to  abstain  from  hostile  operations.  In  return  for 
this  act  of  friendship  he  requested  payment  of  arrears  of 
chout  from  Bengal  and  Behar,  aggregating  some  three  mil- 
lions sterling. 

The  fact  of  a  confederacy  was  partly  proved  by  news 
from  Madras.  Hyder  Ali  had  entered  the  Carnatic  and 
drawn  a  circle  of  flaming  villages  round  Madras  and  Fort 
St.  George.  The  English  army  under  Sir  Hector  Munro, 
the  hero  of  Buxar,  had  marched  against  Hyder  Ali ;  but  by 
some  bad  generalship  had  permitted  an  English  detachment 
to  be  surrounded  by  overwhelming  numbers.  After  des- 
perate heroism,  the  English  were  induced  to  surrender  on 
promises  of  quarter ;  but  no  sooner  had  they  laid  down  their 
arms  than  the  savages  rushed  on  them  with  unbridled  fury, 
and  would  have  butchered  every  man  upon  the  spot  but  for 
the  timely  interference  of  the  French  officers.  As  it  was, 
two  hundred  Europeans  were  carried  off  prisoners  to  Mysore, 
and  subjected  to  cruelties  and  indignities  which  were  never 
forgotten  by  the  survivors. 

1  Mudaji  Bhonsla.     See  ante,  p.  419,  note. 


BRITISH   INDIA  433 

Never  did  the  genius  of  Warren  Hastings  burn  more 
brightly  than  at  this  epoch  in  the  Mahratta  war.  He  dis- 
covered that  Hyder  Ali  had  procured  a  grant  of  the  whole 
of  the  Nizam's  territories  from  Shah  Alam  at  Delhi ;  and  he 
detached  Nizam  Ali  from  the  confederacy  by  informing  him 
of  the  treacherous  transaction.  He  secured  the  neutrality 
of  the  Berar  Raja  by  negotiations  and  a  small  present  of 
money.  He  sent  an  English  force  under  Colonel  Pearse 
to  march  overland  through  the  Berar  Raja's  territories 
toward  Madras.  He  deposed  "Whitehill,  the  Governor  of 
Madras,  on  his  own  authority;  and  further  mollified  Nizam 
Ali  by  the  restoration  of  Guntoor.  At  the  same  time  Sir 
Eyre  Coote  left  Bengal  and  proceeded  to  Madras  by  sea,  to 
take  the  command  of  the  Madras  army  with  full  and  inde- 
pendent powers. 

Eyre  Coote  is  one  of  the  half -forgotten  heroes  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  He  defeated  Hyder  Ali  at  Porto  Novo,1  and 
followed  up  his  success  by  a  series  of  brilliant  victories  which 
have  won  him  a  lasting  name  in  the  annals  of  British  India, 
although  the  details  have  long  since  died  out  of  the  memory 
of  the  British  nation. 

All  this  while  the  Bengal  government  was  sorely  pressed 
for  money,  and  Hastings  sought  to  replenish  the  public  treas- 
ury by  demanding  a  subsidy  from  the  Raja  of  Benares,  and 
calling  on  the  Nawab  Vizier  of  Oude  to  pay  up  all  arrears 
due  to  the  Company.  The  details  are  interesting  from  the 
fact  that  they  formed  the  basis  of  the  more  important  charges 
in  the  subsequent  impeachment  of  "Warren  Hastings. 

Cheit  Singh,  Raja  of  Benares,  was  a  feudatory  of  the 
British  government.  His  father,  Balwunt  Singh,  had  joined 
the  English  after  the  battle  of  Buxar,  and  died  in  1770;  and 
the  Nawab  Vizier  of  Oude  would  have  confiscated  the  terri- 
tory of  Benares  but  for  the  interference  of  the  English,  who 
upheld  the  rights  of  Cheit  Singh.  On  the  accession  of  a  new 


1  Porto  Novo  is  situated  near  the  mouth  of  the  Koleroon,  immediately  to  the 
south  of  Fort  St.  David. 

X— 10  INDIA.    VOL.  I. 


434  HISTORY    OF    INDIA 

Nawab  Vizier  in  1775  the  sovereignty  of  Benares  was  ceded 
to  the  British  government,  while  the  territory  still  remained 
in  the  possession  of  Cheit  Singh. 

Cheit  Singh  paid  a  tribute  to  the  British  government  of 
about  two  hundred  thousand  pounds  per  annum;  but  by  the 
laws  and  customs  of  India,  Moghul  or  Mahratta,  he  was  also 
subject  to  the  extraordinary  demands  of  his  suzerain  for 
money  or  military  service.  Hastings  demanded  an  extra 
fifty  thousand  pounds  per  annum  and  the  service  of  two 
thousand  horse.  The  Raja  complied  for  a  while,  and  then 
evaded  the  demand  on  the  plea  of  poverty.  Hastings,  know- 
ing that  the  Raja  had  large  treasures,  imposed  a  fine  of  half 
a  million  sterling.1 

About  this  time  Hastings  was  proceeding  to  the  city  of 
Benares  to  negotiate  a  peace  with  the  Mahrattas.  As  he 
entered  Benares  territory  he  was  met  by  Cheit  Singh,  who 
offered  to  pay  something  less  than  half  the  fine ;  but  Hast- 
ings persisted  in  demanding  the  half  million.  Subsequently, 
after  reaching  the  city,  Hastings  sent  four  companies  of 
sepoys  to  arrest  the  Raja.  The  mob  of  Benares,  always  the 
most  turbulent  in  India,  rose  against  the  sepoys,  who  had  no 
ammunition,  and  were  slaughtered  on  the  spot. 

Cheit  Singh  fled  in  terror  from  Benares.  Hastings  was 
in  personal  danger,  but  escaped  to  the  fortress  of  Chunar. 
Cheit  Singh  prayed  for  a  reconciliation,  but  Hastings  re- 
fused to  overlook  such  open  rebellion  against  the  British 
supremacy.  Cheit  Singh  tried  to  raise  the  native  princes 
against  the  dominant  power,  but  was  defeated  and  deposed, 
and  ultimately  found  an  asylum  in  Sindia's  territories.  The 
nephew  of  Cheit  Singh  was  then  placed  upon  the  feudatory 
throne  of  Benares,  and  the  yearly  tribute  was  nearly  doubled. 

The  proceedings  of  Hastings  as  regards  the  Nawab  Vizier 

1  Had  the  Raja  of  Benares  resisted  the  demands  of  a  Moghul  or  Mahratta 
sovereign  he  would  have  been  imprisoned  and  squeezed,  until  nothing  was  left 
of  his  treasures.  In  modern  times  the  rights  of  feudatory  princes  of  India  have 
been  denned  and  respected,  if  not  absolutely  created,  by  the  British  government, 
and  they  are  only  expected  to  contribute  to  imperial  necessities  In  the  form 
of  loans. 


BRITISH    INDIA  43S 

of  Oude  were  more  dubious.  Asof-ud-daula  could  not  or 
would  not  pay  up  the  arrears  due  to  the  Company,  unless 
he  was  put  into  possession  of  the  state  treasures  which  had 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  two  Begums.  Hastings  was  told 
that  the  Begums  were  implicated  in  the  rebellion  of  Cheit 
Singh.  Moreover,  he  acknowledged  having  received  a  pres- 
ent of  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  from  the  Nawab  Vizier, 
which  may  possibly  have  warped  his  judgment,  and  which 
will  call  for  some  special  remarks  hereafter.  The  result  was 
that  he  withdrew  the  guarantee  which  Bristow  had  given  to 
the  two  Begums,  and  which  had  been  approved  and  sanc- 
tioned by  the  Bengal  government  during  the  supremacy  of 
Philip  Francis  and  his  two  colleagues  in  the  triumvirate. 
Above  all,  he  connived  at  the  imprisonment  of  the  servants 
of  the  Begums  by  the  Nawab  Vizier  until  the  treasures  were 
surrendered. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Asof-ud-daula  ordered  the 
servants  of  the  Begums  to  be  subjected  to  indignities,  pri- 
vations, and  sufferings,  common  enough  in  the  households 
of  Oriental  despots,  but  revolting  to  civilization.  His  father, 
Shuja-ud-daula,  is  said  to  have  subjected  the  ladies  of  Mir 
Kasim  to  like  cruelties  in  order  to  compel  the  ex-Nawab  to 
surrender  his  secret  hoards.  But  there  is  no  extenuation  for 
Hastings,  and  he  must  share  the  blame  of  the  whole  trans- 
action. Subsequently  he  reported  the  receipt  of  the  hundred 
thousand  pounds  to  the  Court  of  Directors,  and  requested 
permission  to  keep  the  money.  The  Directors  refused  the 
request,  which  ought  never  to  have  been  proffered.  Indeed, 
it  would  have  been  better  for  the  reputation  of  Hastings  if 
he  had  never  accepted  the  money,  or  had  promptly  placed 
the  whole  matter  on  public  record.  As  it  stands,  the  money 
bears  all  the  stamp  of  a  bribe,  intended  to  remove  the  scru- 
ples of  Hastings  as  regards  the  abandonment  of  the  Begums 
and  their  servants  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Nawab  Vizier. 

In  1781-82  the  first  Mahratta  war  was  brought  to  a  close. 
Nana  Farnavese  was  at  this  time  too  much  afraid  of  Hyder 
Ali  to  ratify  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  English.  But 


436  HISTORY   OF    INDIA 

Maliadaji  Sindia  exercised  a  predominating  influence  in  tbe 
councils  of  the  Peishwa,  and  was  more  inclined  to  the  alli- 
ance. Negotiations  were  thus  concluded  with  Mahadaji 
Sindia  but  evaded  by  Nana  Farnavese. 

At  the  end  of  1782  it  was  known  that  Hyder  AM  was 
dead;  and  Nana  Farnavese  ratified  the  treaty  which  had 
been  concluded  with  Mahadaji  Sindia,  and  was  known  as 
the  treaty  of  Salbai.  The  terms  of  this  treaty  are  simple 
and  intelligible.  The  English  and  the  Mahrattas  were  ma* 
tually  pledged  to  withhold  all  help  from  the  enemies  of  the 
other.  Bughonath  Rao  was  set  aside  and  pensioned.  The 
infant  Peishwa,  Mahdu  Rao  the  Second,  was  recognized  aa 
the  legitimate  head  of  the  Mahratta  empire.  The  council  of 
regency  was  also  recognized  as  represented  by  Nana  Farna- 
vese. Salsette  and  some  small  islands  were  retained  by  Bom- 
bay, but  all  other  conquests  were  restored  to  the  Mahrattas. 
The  important  districts  acquired  in  Guzerat  were  made  over 
to  Mahadaji  Sindia  as  an  acknowledgment  of  his  moderation 
at  Wurgaum;  but  the  grief  of  the  inhabitants  at  being  re- 
stored to  the  grasping  oppression  of  their  Mahratta  rulers 
was  profound  and  sincere,  and  caused  many  pangs  of  regret 
to  the  amiable  Forbes. 

The  death  of  Hyder  AH  in  1782  is  a  landmark  in  the  his- 
tory. He  was  cruel  and  often  brutally  so;  he  was  also  self- 
indulgent  to  an  extreme  after  the  manner  of  eastern  poten- 
tates. Like  Akbar  he  could  neither  read  nor  write,  yet  he 
was  shrewd,  sagacious,  indifferent  in  matters  of  religion, 
and  tolerant  toward  Hindus. 

Swartz  the  missionary  has  left  a  striking  description  of 
the  government  of  Hyder  All.  The  palace  at  Seringapatam 
had  an  open  space  in  front,  with  ranges  of  civil  and  military 
offices  on  either  side,  so  that  Hyder  Ah"  could  overlook  the 
whole  from  his  balcony.  Two  hundred  men  with  whips 
were  constantly  in  attendance  to  scourge  all  offenders- 
gentlemen,  horsekeepers,  tax-gatherers,  and  even  his  own 
sons.  Not  a  day  passed  without  a  number  of  officials  being 
flogged.  The  offenders  were  not  dismissed  from  his  service, 


BRITISH   INDIA  437 

but  sent  back  to  their  offices,  with  the  marks  of  the  stripes 
on  their  backs  as  public  warnings. 

One  evening  Swartz  went  to  the  palace,  and  saw  a  num- 
ber of  men  of  rank  sitting  round  in  great  tribulation.  He 
was  told  that  they  were  revenue  collectors  of  districts,  but 
they  looked  more  like  criminals  expecting  death.  One 
wretched  defaulter  was  scourged  in  the  most  horrible  man- 
ner, while  his  shrieks  rent  the  air.  Yet  there  was  a  great 
struggle  for  these  posts,  especially  among  the  Brahmans. 
They  outbid  one  another  hi  order  to  be  appointed  collectors, 
and  then  practiced  similar  cruelties  toward  the  people  in 
order  to  add  to  their  gains. 

At  this  period  Lord  Macartney  was  Governor  of  Madras. 
He  had  landed  in  India  in  1781,  and  distinguished  himself 
by  pushing  on  the  war  against  Hyder  Ali;  but  his  adminis- 
tration was  chiefly  marked  by  differences  with  the  Bengal 
government  which  have  long  since  been  forgotten.  He  was 
distinguished  by  a  spotless  purity  in  money  matters  which 
has  handed  down  his  name  to  posterity  as  the  first  Governor 
of  a  new  regime.1 

In  1784  Lord  Macartney  sent  envoys  to  Tippu,  the  son 
and  successor  of  Hyder  Ali,  to  negotiate  a  peace.  A  treaty 
was  concluded  at  Mangalore  by  which  both  the  English  and 
Tippu  were  mutually  bound  to  withhold  all  help  from  the 
enemies  of  the  other;  and  a  large  number  of  European  pris- 
oners, who  had  passed  years  of  suffering,  privation,  and 
torture  in  Mysore,  were  at  last  restored  to  lif e  and  freedom. 

During  the  war  against  Hyder  Ali,  Lord  Macartney  as- 
sumed the  management  of  the  revenues  of  the  Carnatic. 
The  Nawab  agreed  to  the  measure,  reserving  a  sixth  part 
for  the  maintenance  of  his  family  and  dignity.  Indeed  he 
was  unable  to  offer  any  opposition.  The  Carnatic  was  vir- 

1  In  1781  the  English  were  at  war  with  the  Dutch,  and  Lord  Macartney  cap- 
tured the  two  Dutch  seaports  of  Pulicat  and  Sadras,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Madras,  to  prevent  their  falling  into  the  hands  of  Hyder  Ali  or  the  French.  The 
dismantled  fortifications  are  still  to  be  seen  within  easy  communication  from 
Madras,  and  will  well  repay  a  visit,  as  they  form  the  most  interesting  relics  at 
Dutch  dominion  which  are  to  be  found  in  all  India. 


438  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

tually  occupied  by  the  armies  of  Hyder  Ali;  and  for  a 
period  of  eighteen  months  the  Nawab  had  not  contributed 
a  single  rupee  toward  the  expenses  of  the  war;  while  the 
native  renters  had  often  endangered  the  very  existence  of 
the  forces  in  the  field  by  keeping  back  supplies,  either  for 
their  own  profit,  or  out  of  treacherous  collusion  with  the 
enemy.  Indeed,  on  one  occasion  Eyre  Coote  had  placed  a 
native  renter  in  irons  for  having  endeavored  to  betray  the 
fortress  of  Vellore  to  Hyder  Ali.  The  new  arrangement 
insured  the  regularity  of  supplies;  protected  the  Nawab 
from  the  rapacity  of  his  creditors;  while  delivering  the  peo- 
ple from  the  merciless  exactions  of  the  native  renters.  In  a 
word,  Lord  Macartney  was  driven  by  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  to  take  the  revenues  of  the  Carnatic  under 
direct  control,  as  the  only  possible  way  of  saving  the  coun- 
try, the  people,  the  Nawab  himself,  and  the  Company's 
possessions,  from  utter  destruction. 

When  the  war  was  over  Lord  Macartney  resolved  on  per- 
petuating an  arrangement  which  had  enabled  him  to  provide 
for  the  expenses  of  the  war  as  well  as  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  Nawab.  Accordingly  he  refused  to  restore  the  revenues 
to  the  control  of  Muhammad  Ali  and  his  native  renters. 
Large  bribes  were  offered  to  him,  but  he  was  immovable. 
For  thirty  years  it  had  been  obvious  to  all  parties  concerned 
— to  the  Nawab  himself,  as  well  as  to  the  Madras  govern 
ment  and  the  Court  of  Directors — that  the  East  India  Com- 
pany alone  could  protect  the  Carnatic  from  the  horrible  rav- 
ages to  which  it  had  been  exposed  from  Hyder  Ali,  Nizam 
Ali,  or  the  Mahrattas.  It  was  equally  obvious  that  unless 
the  English  held  the  power  of  the  purse  they  could  not  wield 
the  power  of  the  sword.  The  sixth  part  of  the  revenues  had 
been  regularly  paid  to  the  Nawab,  and  in  reality  yielded  him 
more  money  for  his  private  purposes  than  he  had  ever  en- 
joyed before.  Lord  Macartney  was  willing  to  continue  the 
payment,  and  to  investigate  and  liquidate  all  the  just  claims 
of  the  Nawab's  creditors ;  but  he  was  determined  that  hence- 
forth the  Nawab  should  be  powerless  for  evil;  and  for  this 


BRITISH   INDIA  439 

purpose  it  was  necessary  to  depose  Muhammad  Ali  from  his 
sovereign  authority,  and  reduce  him  to  the  condition  of  a 
pageant  pensioner  like  the  Nawab  Nazims  of  Bengal. 

The  equity  of  the  measure  was  open  to  question.  So 
long  as  the  English  maintained  a  helpless  Nawab  on  the 
throne  of  the  Carnatic,  so  long  were  they  responsible  fop 
the  sufferings  of  his  wretched  subjects.  On  the  other  hand, 
for  more  than  thirty  years,  the  East  India  Company,  tot 
purposes  of  its  own,  had  treated  the  Nawab  as  an  independ- 
ent prince;  and  his  sovereignty  had  been  acknowledged  alike 
by  the  English  parliament  and  the  Crown.  In  a  word,  the 
Nawab  of  the  Carnatic  was  a  political  Frankenstein,  the  cre- 
ation of  the  Company,  galvanized  into  artificial  life  by  the 
Company's  own  servants ;  and  he  could  not  be  deposed  from 
his  sovereignty  unless  it  could  be  proved  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  English  parliament  that  his  extinction  was  essential 
to  the  safety  of  British  interests  in  Southern  India. 

Meanwhile  Indian  affairs  had  been  hotly  debated  in  the 
English  parliament.  Indian  wars  and  conquests  had  been 
denounced,  and  alliances  with  native  princes  had  been  con- 
demned as  the  cause  of  all  Iridiiyn  wars.  In  3784  an  act 
was  passed,  known  as  Mr.  Pitt's  bill,  under  which  a  Board 
of  Control  was  nominated  by  the  Crown  to  exercise  supreme 
authority  over  the  civil  and  military  administration  of  the 
Company's  servants.  It  consisted  of  six  members,  but  all 
real  power  was  vested  in  the  President  of  the  Board,  who 
played  the  part  of  an  additional  Secretary  of  State,  and  was 
directly  responsible  to  parliament  and  the  Crown.1  It  was 
enacted  that  for  the  future  no  alliances  should  be  formed 
with  any  native  prince  without  the  consent  of  parliament. 


1  The  Board  of  Control  consisted  of  six  members  of  the  Privy  Council,  chosen 
by  the  Crown,  and  always  including  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  one 
of  the  Secretaries  of  State.  In  the  absence  of  the  Chancellor  and  Secretary  of 
State,  the  senior  member  acted  as  President  of  the  Eoard,  and  practically  was 
the  sole  authority.  Mr.  Dundas,  afterward  Lord  Melville,  was  the  first  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Control.  The  Board  was  maintained  down  to  the  year  1858, 
when  it  was  amalgamated  with  the  Court  of  Directors,  and  the  whole  was  trans- 
formed into  a  Secretary  of  State  for  India  in  Council. 


440  HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

It  was  also  enacted,  with  the  view  of  preventing  future 
scandals,  that  no  servant  of  the  Company  should  engage  in 
any  monetary  transactions  with  any  native  prince  without 
the  express  sanction  of  the  Governor-General  of  India.1 

All  this  while  the  creditors  of  the  Nawab  were  straining 
every  effort  to  procure  his  restoration  to  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Carnatic.  Indeed  unless  Muhammad  Ali  was  replaced 
in  the  possession  of  the  revenues,  his  creditors  could  never 
hope  to  realize  the  enormous  fortunes  which  for  years  had 
dazzled  their  imaginations  and  perverted  their  moral  sense. 
Emissaries  from  the  Nawab,  including  the  notorious  Mr. 
Paul  Benfield,  appeared  in  London  with  large  means  at 
their  disposal  for  the  purchase  of  seats  in  parliament,  and 
otherwise  bringing  corrupt  influences  to  bear  upon  men  in 
high  places.* 

It  would  be  tedious  to  rake  up  a  forgotten  controversy  in 
which  there  was  much  to  be  said  on  both  sides.  The  Board 
of  Control  eventually  decided  that  as  the  war  with  Hyder 
Ali  had  been  brought  to  a  close  there  was  no  necessity  for 
lowering  the  status  of  the  Nawab,  and  no  excuse  for  retain- 
ing the  management  of  the  Carnatic.  With  this  view  the 
Board  of  Control  ordered,  not  only  that  the  Carnatic  should 

1  By  a  subsequent  act,  37  of  George  III.,  this  prohibition  was  extended  to 
all  European  subjects  of  the  British  Grown. 

*  The  lives  of  the  English  adventurers  who  preyed  upon  the  Nawab  of  the 
Carnatic,  and  other  native  princes,  during  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  cent- 
ury, would  make  an  instructive  volume.  Their  intrigues  in  London  would  per- 
haps prove  more  curious  than  those  at  Arcot  and  Madras.  Their  parade  of 
wealth  and  jewels  at  the  Court  of  St.  James's  was  the  marvel  and  envy  of  the 
aristocracy.  Mrs.  Paul  Benfield  astonished  London  by  driving  through  the  parka 
in  a  chariot  of  cerulean  blue.  Mr.  Paul  Benfield  ultimately  lost  all  his  fortune, 
and  died  at  Paris  in  extreme  poverty.  Mr. ,  afterward  Sir  John,  Macpherson, 
who  for  a  brief  period  succeeded  Warren  Hastings  as  Governor-General,  was 
originally  the  purser  of  a  ship,  who  entered  the  service  of  the  Nawab  of  the 
Carnatic,  and  afterward  went  to  London  and  gained  the  ear  of  the  Duke  of  Graf- 
ton.  The  magazines  and  journals  of  the  day  would  furnish  equally  suggestive 
details  respecting  Mr.  Holland  and  others.  All  these  men  were  at  one  time  or 
other  in  the  Company's  service.  There  were  also  adventurers  at  Seringapatam, 
Hyderabad,  and  Lucknow,  who  had  never  been  in  the  service.  In  the  story  of 
"Lame  Jervis"  Miss  Edgeworth  describes  one  of  these  men  who  visited  the 
Court  of  Tippu,  and  proved  a  favorable  specimen  of  his  class.  There  were  oth- 
ers whose  careers  would  vindicate  the  proceedings  of  the  Court  of  Directors  in 
prohibiting  the  advent  of  Europeans  into  the  domiuioan  of  native  princes. 


BRITISH   INDIA 

be  restored  to  the  Nawab,  but  tbat  all  claims  against  the 
Nawab  should  be  liquidated  out  of  the  revenues  of  the  Car- 
natic  without  any  further  investigation.  Lord  Macartney 
retired  from  the  service  rather  than  obey  such  orders;  but 
many  of  the  Company's  servants  acquired  large  fortunes, 
Mr.  Benfield  alone  realizing  about  half  a  million  sterling.1 

Meanwhile  the  government  of  Warren  Hastings  drew 
toward  a  close.  His  proceedings  as  regards  Cheit  Singh 
and  the  Begums  were  severely  censured  by  the  Court  of 
Directors,  and  he  lost  the  support  of  his  colleagues  in  coun- 
cil. Accordingly  he  resigned  the  service,  and  left  India  in 
February,  1785,  never  to  return. 

The  subsequent  impeachment  and  acquittal  of  Warren 
Hastings  are  great  events  in  English  history,  but  they  made 
no  impression  on  the  people  of  India.  A  storm  of  indigna- 
tion was  raised  by  Philip  Francis,  and  turned  to  a  hurricane 
by  the  hot  eloquence  of  Burke,  Fox,  and  Sheridan ;  but  the 
people  of  Bengal  only  knew  Hastings  as  a  deliverer,  a  pro- 
tector, and  a  conqueror,  and  they  were  bewildered  by  the 
remote  thunder  in  Westminster  Hall. 

The  three  most  important  charges  against  Hastings  re- 
ferred to  the  Rohilla  war,  and  the  treatment  of  Cheit  Singh 
and  the  Begums;  but  the  animus  of  the  charge  was  that 
Hastings  had  exercised  and  countenanced  cruelty  and  op- 
pression for  the  sake  of  money.  Lord  Clive  had  accepted 
presents,  but  he  was  not  accused  like  Hastings  of  taking 
bribes.  Bribery  and  corruption,  however,  are  difficult  of 
judicial  proof,  whether  in  England  or  India;  and  grave 
suspicion  will  often  insure  a  moral  conviction  when  a  legal 


1  The  settlement  of  the  debts  of  Muhammad  Ali  was  accompanied  by  minis- 
terial scandals  which  will  never  be  cleared  up,  and  which  belong  to  the  history 
of  England  rather  than  to  the  history  of  India.  Burke  denounced  Benfield, 
Dundarf,  and  all  concerned ;  but  his  invectives  were  so  coarse  and  extravagant 
that  they  failed  to  make  any  lasting  impression.  It  will  suffice  to  say  that  be- 
tween 1784  and  1804  five  millions  sterling  were  paid  away.  In  1805  commis- 
sioners were  appointed  to  investigate  the  further  claims  of  private  creditors ;  and 
between  1805  and  1814  claims  to  the  amount  of  twenty  millions  were  brought 
under  examination,  during  which  nineteen  millions  were  rejected  as  bad,  while 
little  more  than  a  million  was  treated  ae  true  and  lawful  debt. 


443  HISTORY    OF   INDIA 

| 

conviction  is  wanting ;  but  in  the  case  of  Warren  Hastings 
the  national  resentment  was  neutralized  by  the  obvious  vin- 
dictiveness  of  Francis,  and  the  dreary  procrastination  of  a 
state  trial,  until  it  had  spent  its  force  and  died  away.  Pos- 
terity will  possibly  decide  that  the  services  of  Hastings  have 
thrown  his  failings  into  the  shade;  that  Hastings  deserved 
approbation  and  reward  at  the  hands  of  the  East  India 
Company;  but  that  William  Pitt  was  in  the  right  when 
he  refused  to  recommend  Warren  Hastings  for  a  peerage, 
or  for  honorable  employment  under  the  British  Crown.1 

Philip  Francis  may  be  consigned  to  oblivion.  His  tal- 
ents might  have  gained  him  a  lasting  name  in  the  history 
of  India,  but  were  frittered  away  in  attempts  to  advance 
himself  at  the  expense  of  Hastings.  He  intrigued  for  the 
post  of  Governor-General  until  his  hopes  were  shattered  by 
old  age.  To  this  day  he  is  only  remembered  as  the  writer 
of  the  "Letters  of  Junius,"  and  as  the  vindictive  enemy  of 
Warren  Hastings. 


1  Lord  Macaulay  acquits  Hastings  of  money  corruption  on  the  ground  of  want 
of  evidence ;  had  he  been  familiar  with  the  workings  of  native  courts  in  India  he 
would  have  found  Hastings  guilty.  Hastings  acknowledged  to  having  taken  a 
hundred  thousand  pounds  from  Asof-ud-daula  in  1782.  The  inference  follows 
that  in  1773  he  received  a  like  sum  from  Shuja-ud-daula,  and  silently  pocketed 
the  money.  Officers  of  any  political  experience  would  be  satisfied  that  Asof-ud- 
daula  would  never  have  offered  the  hundred  thousand  pounds  to  Hastings  unless 
a  like  sum  had  been  previously  offered  by  his  father,  Shuja-ud-daula,  and  accepted 
by  Hastings. 

While  Warren  Hastings  was  preparing  to  defend  himself  against  his  enemies, 
he  was  harassed  by  the  thought  that  he  had  left  an  old  bureau  behind  at  Cal- 
cutta, containing  papers  of  such  secrecy  that  he  could  not  intrust  them  to  his 
closest  friends.  At  least  seven  references  to  this  lost  bureau  are  to  be  found  in 
his  published  correspondence  (Gleig's  Life  of  Hastings,  vol.  Hi.,  pp.  238,  240, 
268,  286,  290,  297,  and  327).  Nowhere  is  it  said  that  the  bureau  was  recov- 
ered.. Had  it  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Francis,  it  might  have  made  short  work 
of  the  trial  at  Westminster  Hall. 


END    OF    VOLUME    ONE 


23059 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000676334     6 


